Teachers vow to reject revised medical scheme

A standoff looms between teachers and the government over a plan to scrap their Sh300 million-a-month medical allowances.

The government plans to abolish the automatic allowances paid as part of salaries in a review of terms of service slated to take effect July 1.

In the proposed structure, all 475,480 teachers and civil servants would be required to pay monthly premiums to finance a new health insurance scheme similar to those subscribed to by workers in the private sector.

The move would also affect 2,978 Teachers Service Commission (TSC) employees.

The new insurance scheme is expected to create a bank of Sh7 billion a year to be run by private firms.

If the proposal is approved, teachers would lose their monthly medical allowance that ranges between Sh767 for the lowest-paid to Sh4,412 for the highest paid employee, a chief principal.

The teachers and civil servants would uniformly pay between Sh13,062 and Sh46,968 in annual premiums to finance the scheme. They would also pay Sh200 for an outpatient “co-pay” scheme that is part of the reforms.

Medical allowances

Civil servants would also forfeit their monthly medical allowances of between Sh375 and Sh2,490.

But teachers, whose perks are higher than those of civil servants, have rejected the proposal. In contrast, the Union of Kenya Civil Servants has endorsed it.

The teachers’ opposition came to light two weeks ago when top officials of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) met Public Service minister Dalmas Otieno to discuss the new scheme.

Acting Knut national chairman Wilson Sossion said teachers were opposed to the scheme because it “is worse than the current one administered by the National Hospital Insurance Fund”.

“We do not want to lose our Sh300 million a month which is already reflected in our payslips,” he said.

He said the union’s members were contributing Sh92 million a month for “better” medical services through NHIF which covers outpatient, inpatient and critical illness.

The Knut boss added that the union would oppose the proposal as it would mean that “we lose our allowance”.

Under the new scheme, he said, private insurance firms would be awarded the tender to insure government staff, something he said would benefit the private companies.

He also opposed a provision that the new scheme would cover only the staff member and three dependants.

“We cannot accept such limitations at the expense of the current NHIF scheme that caters for an employee’s spouse and all their children even if they are 10,” Mr Sossion said. He argued the current NHIF scheme was better and should remain in place.

“We are suspicious at the way the government is pushing this idea down our throats so fast,” he said. “Some people may be forcing it on us because they have interests especially as we head towards next year’s General Election.”

Without disclosing what the union would do should the government implement the proposal, Mr Sossion said: “We have given them a warning.”

Currently, the lowest-paid teacher receives a monthly medical allowance of Sh767 or Sh9,204 a year.

The highest-paid teacher, a chief principal, receives Sh4,412 a month or Sh52,944 a year.

The majority of the teachers, who are at P1 grade, receive Sh954 a month, or Sh11,448 annually. There are 97,775 teachers in this category.

There are 260,111 teachers under the TSC, according to the document prepared by the Public Service ministry.

In the Public Service, in grade A the lowest-paid civil servant earns a medical allowance of Sh375 while the highest-paid in job group T earns Sh2,940 a month. This amounts to Sh4,500 and Sh29,880 a year respectively for the two groups.

An outline of the proposed scheme was first published in the Public Service ministry’s inhouse publication, Yellow Monday, on March 11.

Transform scheme

The newsletter said the government plans to transform the existing medical allowance given to civil servants and teachers into a medical insurance scheme.

It said the minister was “holding consultations” with the Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Union of Kenya Civil Servants over the matter.

“The coverage will (upon implementation) meet inpatient, out-patient and critical illness expenses of the beneficiaries of the scheme,” the document said.

“It will also pay a specified amount of money upon the death of the beneficiary while in employment apart from meeting prescribed amounts of money to meet the cost of funeral expenses.”

According to the publication, the premiums under the scheme will be pegged on the ranks of employee.

“If implemented, the scheme will save thousands of civil servants and teachers who suffer and in many cases die because the medical allowances they receive cannot defray the cost of treatment.”

The contribution they make to NHIF, said the document, cannot effectively meet the expenses charged by some good hospitals.

According to an outline showing details of the scheme, the lowest-paid civil servant will be entitled to a Sh500,000 and the highest-paid Sh2 million a year for inpatient treatment.

For outpatient treatment, the lowest-paid civil servant will be eligible for Sh50,000 a year. But the highest-paid staff will be entitled to Sh150,000.

They will also be entitled to life insurance cover of between Sh150,000 and Sh750,000 a year.

The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) secretary-general Njeru Kanyamba said the union’s advisory council met the Public Service minister on Thursday and asked for a month to consult members on the proposal.

But he said the officials were agreed the scheme was one of the best initiatives by the government if it is implemented.

“There are only a few things that we may want to look into before giving it a full endorsement,” he said. “We are happy that it will take care of many things, including funerals of members.”

Although the scheme would be limited to coverage of a spouse and two children, those couples who work with the TSC would be able to enrol four children.

Teachers, Mr Kanyamba said, were often exposed to medical problems because they use the medical allowance for other purposes.

Derail implementation

Knut’s opposition to the scheme may derail the implementation as happened with the contributory pensions scheme that was planned to come into force more than two years ago.

The union rejected the scheme, arguing that there was no policy framework to implement it and that the funds could be misused.