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Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki stated that the Government was planning to increase the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) contribution.
According to the CS, employees might have to contribute 2 percent of their income to boost universal health coverage (UHC).
What is UHC
Universal health coverage (UHC) means that every person irrespective of where they live and their socioeconomic status has access to good quality health services without having to go through any financial hardship.
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UHC has three key elements, which are: equity in access to healthcare in terms of geographic coverage and the range of available health services; high-quality health services; and financial protection against any hardship to users of health services which may arise from out-of-pocket payments.
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Experts had suggested that financing to come from government revenue first before it considered tapping into resources from other stakeholders.
Revising NHIF
To realise the full benefits of UHC, health experts also advised the government to review how the NHIF operates.
Presently, NHIF has 6.5 million beneficiaries, and the government seeks to double the figure within four years under the UHC programme.
The coverage is expected to net about 40 million Kenyans if the principal member is approximated to have at least three dependants.
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For NHIF, salaried employees remit mandatory premiums of up to Ksh1, 700 monthly while there is a Ksh500 voluntary scheme for the self-employed on a monthly basis.