County workers clean the polluted Nairobi River on February 22. PHOTO | GPS
Medical insurance service provider AAR has suspended the account of Nairobi County over a Sh855 million debt, locking out more than 12,000 employees who are to foot hospital bills from their own pockets.
A communication to the workers seen by Business Daily shows that City Hall informed the staff to start paying their medical expenses effective last week.
Governor Mike Sonko’s administration, who was impeached on December 3, has defaulted on insurance premiums for five months, prompting the insurer to halt services for the thousands of staff and their dependents.
Suspension of the insurance cover will hit the workers at a time patients are now forced to pay for a Covid-19 test before they get treatment for some ailments across public and private hospitals.
“Please be informed that we shall be going off cover today at midnight for all Nairobi City County staff and their dependents due to lack of premiums payment for the last five months,” sub-county administrators informed workers in the statement.
The insurer pulled the plug on the service two weeks after City Hall defied requests to settle the dues and avert a looming crisis for workers.
AAR had on November 13 written to City Hall to settle the debt before November 18 failure to which it would suspend the services without further consultations. The money is for the period between July to June 2021.
“We hereby request for settlement of the outstanding premium amount of Sh855,002,417 before Wednesday, 18 November 2020. Please take note that without medical insurance payment, we will be unable to continue offering uninterrupted services to the Nairobi City County staff and their families,” AAR managing director Nixon Shigoli said in letter to City Hall.
“This letter serves to inform you that we will be forced to go off cover effective Wednesday 18 November 2020 at midnight should we not have received the outstanding premium payment by then without any further reference to your office,” added the letter written on November 13.
Failure to pay the debts comes at a time the governor has refused to authorise withdrawal of cash from City Hall’s accounts triggering a near paralysis of service delivery that has also led to salary delays for the employees and ward representatives over the past two months.
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