National Social Security Fund chairman Adan Mohamed (left) chats with Finance minister Robinson Githae during the inaugural NSSF annual general meeting. Photo/DIANA NGILA NATION MEDIA GROUP
Posted Tuesday, February 19 2013 at 17:29
The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) has indicated its intention to start levying the increased monthly charges despite stiff opposition from workers, employers and trade union representatives.
Once implemented, the new charges will put up to Sh20 billion in NHIF’s accounts, more than double the Sh9 billion that the scheme has been collecting per annum.
Workers who have been paying between Sh30 and Sh320 per month will see their monthly deductions multiply to between Sh150 and Sh2,000.
Yet, the NHIF is yet to show any intention of being a more transparent and accountable organization that can be trusted with such a huge amount of money.
The chief executive, Simon ole Kirgotty, while boasting long civil service experience, is neither a medical professional nor has he ever been chief executive of an organisation that manages anything near the cash pile that he will be expected to handle at NHIF.
Nearly half of the premium payments are spent on staff and administration costs, yet he does not appear to have an answer on how this ratio can be brought down.
The position of this newspaper is and has always been that the idea of a universal health fund is one whose time has come, but we do not trust the NHIF to deliver on the scheme.
Only recently, the NHIF board had an acrimonious public fall-out amid accusations and counter-accusations of theft of hundreds of millions of shillings from the civil servants’ trial scheme.
The results of sham investigations that were done on the matter were never made public, and no one was ever held responsible for the loss of workers’ funds.
Medical Services minister Anyang’ Nyong’o has appeared more interested in pushing through the hastily thought-out scheme, rather than addressing the public concerns about quality, transparency and accountability.
Unfortunately efforts by the Central Organisation of Trade Unions to have implementation of the new charges halted by the courts have flopped.
Employers, who were also initially opposed to the plan, have conveniently chosen to bury their heads in the sand following the promise that they will not be asked to top-up employees’ deductions.
The poor lot of about two million formal sector workers is therefore left to carry the burden of the other 38 million Kenyans.
As it is now, the NHIF scheme is set for a resounding failure.
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