House team questions NHIF’s ability to offer health services

Employers should have been asked to contribute to the National Hospital Insurance Fund to enable it provide outpatient services, a parliamentary committee heard on Tuesday.

National Hospital Insurance Fund head Richard Kerich said from the fund’s studies abroad, employers top up employees’ contribution to the social health insurance scheme.

But when the matter came up before the board, the representative of the Federation of Kenya Employers shot down the proposal, saying it would increase the cost of doing business, discourage investors and add to an already high tax burden.

But Ikolomani MP Boni Khalwale and the head of the departmental committee on health, Dr Richard Monda, disputed the claim.

The MPs also appeared not to have been convinced that NHIF was ready to offer outpatient services.

“We are not convinced yet that the much you have done justifies rolling out outpatient services. The programme is in the right path but a strong supporting argument is needed to endorse it,” said Dr Monda.

The NHIF board was accused of increasing the burden on the poor with the new rates, currently suspended by a court decision.

“I see in you the typical Big Bank Syndrome; You protect the golf players because they give you a few goodies and go for the poor because they have nothing to give,” said Dr Khalwale.

He said of the sampled countries, it was only in Kenya where the employers paid nothing.

Mr Kerich said Tanzanians pay three per cent of their income, with the employers contributing a similar amount, the same applies in The Philippines. Germans pay seven per cent, which is topped up with eight per cent by the employer.