The Principal Secretary (PS), State Department for Medical Services, Ministry of Health, Harry Kimtai has assured of government’s commitment to deal with teething challenges bedeviling the ongoing implementation of the new Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF).
The new Health system, which came into effect, October 1st, promises to revolutionize the country’s health sector, towards the achievement of Universal Health Coverage, by providing key health services to Kenyans across the social strata.
The SHIF system also marks a fundamental transition from the National Health Insurance Fund. (NHIF), where nine million Kenyans whose data lay with the Fund have been migrated to the new SHIF system.
According to Kimtai, over 12 million Kenyans have been newly registered as of Wednesday, with thousands of others awaiting approval, adding that the government has procured 64,000 extra mobile devices, to the initial 5,000 devices, to speed-up the registration exercise across counties.
Already 4, 700 public health facilities have been registered and approved under the new system, with the PS noting that 400 ICT officers, have been dispatched to counties to register the remaining 100.
Kimtai said the ICT officers would also help health centres to unclog any technical challenges that have seen hundreds of Kenyans stranded due to system hitches, even as he committed to the ongoing training for the community health promoters (CHPs).
Speaking in Naivasha during a stakeholders meeting with the Council of Governors, the PS said in consultation with the National Treasury, the Ministry has been exempted from making payments through the e-Citizen platform and instead use Mpesa Playbill to bypass systems glitches over the next three months.
With the mounting debts owed to counties by the Kenya Medical Services Authority (KEMSA) of up to Sh. 30 billion, Kimtai said the government has released Sh. 1 billion to the Authority, to enable it to supply essential drugs to counties.
“The government is undertaking reconciliation of the huge debts KEMSA owes counties to unlock the payment plan, but for the time being, we have released Sh. 1 billion, to facilitate delivery of essential drugs to counties,” said PS Kimtai.
Consequently, the PS said the Ministry would this Friday sign the Intergovernmental Participatory Agreements (IPAs), which will bring all the county governments on board to accelerate the uptake of the new Health system by Kenyans.
This comes after the Council of Governors Health Committee members, accused the Ministry of bypassing the counties in the rollout of the new Social Health Insurance Fund system.
According to the Chair of the Health Committee in COG, who is also Tharaka-Nithi Governor, Muthomi Njuki, the Health Scheme has been marred by challenges, including inadequate registration devices, system glitches and confusion among Kenyans.
The Chair said that at the time of the official transition to the new Health system, no County had signed a binding agreement with the Ministry, even though 75 per cent of health facilities are domiciled at the County level.
Muthomi said that the four Acts that gave effect to the implementation of the new Health system are money bills that require funding from the National Treasury. So far, only a portion of it has been released.
The Governor said so far, the emergency chronic and critical care fund had not been activated by the Social Health Board, which he said had left hundreds of patients in limbo.
Muthomi said the government is rolling out the new Health system without adequate funding, which risks being affected going forward.
According to the Ministry of Health, the government has cost Public Health Care funds at sh. 61B every year, but so far, only Sh. 4.1B of funds is available leaving a deficit of sh.
30.9B.
In addition to the Emergency and Chronic Care Fund optimized for Sh. 3.8B annually, only sh. 2B has been allocated in the current financial year.
SHA CEO, Elijah Wachira, noted that despite emerging challenges, over 12.5million people had been registered in two days and 9million members transferred from NHIF to SHIF.
“The government has invested heavily in the system and I have directed all hospitals to treat those patients with chronic diseases as they await to be registered under the new system,” he said.
By Erastus Gichohi
