The Kajiado Governor, Joseph Ole Lenku has launched a mass registration drive for the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) health scheme in Kajiado County.
The mass registration exercise seeks to provide affordable, accessible and sustainable medical cover to all residents in the area.
The scheme is expected to offer quality healthcare in the wake of rising medical bills that has seen many families ruined economically by roof topping hospital bills and related expenses.
The insurance cover will foot bills for both outpatient and inpatient services including those related to chronic diseases such as cancer and kidney ailments.
“Days when people organized Harambee to offset huge medical bills will soon come to an end, we now have medical covers,” Lenku said.
The Governor tasked the administrative heads through chiefs to sensitize locals on the importance of the NHIF medical insurance so that they can take advantage of the affordable services offered.
He assured the residents of his commitment in realizing his campaign pledge of affordable universal healthcare through supporting initiatives such as the NHIF scheme and equipping of health facilities.
During the event, Governor Lenku supervised the upgrading of Ngatataek dispensary to a health center.
Lenku said the upgrading of the facility will help decongest Kajiado County referral hospital that is now handling many complicated health issues from all the sub counties.
He added that more nurses and clinical officers will be posted to the facility which now acts as a referral center.
Statistics by NHIF show that only 167,134 residents in Kajiado County were actively paying the NHIF membership fees.
The Kajiado County NHIF Coordinator, Alfred Ng’etich said the County had only 89 disabled people registered with NHIF while only 3,695 residents above 70 years were enjoying the services of the scheme.
“We have 4,022 vulnerable residents in our subsidized health scheme. A further 73,568 are insured from the informal sector,” said Ng’etich.
By Rop Janet/ Albert Lemomo
