Students to benefit from Sh4bn NHIF cover from Tuesday
President Uhuru Kenyatta (back right), Deputy President William Ruto, Cabinet Secretaries Sicily Kariuki (Health, front left) and Amina Mohamed (Education) look on as Education PS Belio Kipsang, flanked by NHIF chief executive officer Geoffrey Mwangi, signs the contract that saw the implementation of the medical cover scheme for secondary school students, at State House, Nairobi, on April 13, 2018. PHOTO | SAMWEL MIRING'U
What you need to know:
The Ministry of Education also hopes that the scheme will stop misuse of government funds dispatched to schools for medical cover.
The premiums for the cover will be payable annually in advance at the beginning of the cover period.
A student who exits from a public secondary school will not benefit from the scheme.
Secondary school students across the country will from Tuesday start to benefit from the Sh4 billion medical cover.
Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said schools will use data in the National Education Management Information System (Nemis) as they await processing of medical cards by National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).
“The NHIF card for every student will not be ready by the time schools re-open on Monday and that is why we have advised schools to use the available data, no student should be denied medication,” said Dr Kipsang on Wednesday on the sidelines of Pan African conference on education in Nairobi.
It is estimated that 3million secondary school students will benefit from the scheme.
QUALITY EDUCATION
The objectives of the ministry in providing health cover to students are; improve the quality of education, access and retention of students in school. It also seeks to reduce the cost of medical costs incurred by the parents, improve the general well being of students and save time.
The Ministry of Education also hopes that the scheme will stop misuse of government funds dispatched to schools for medical cover.
“It will address the problem of poor quality services at school clinics, cases of lack of funds to support medical cases in schools and accidents in schools,” adds a brief by the Ministry of Education.
RENEWABLE
The scheme that was launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta this month will run until December 31 and thereafter renewable annually from January 1, 2019 over a period of five years.
The premiums for the cover will be payable annually in advance at the beginning of the cover period.
A student who exits from a public secondary school will not benefit from the scheme.
“In any action, suit or other proceedings where the NHIF alleges that any medical expense is not covered by this agreement, the burden of proving that such expense is covered shall be upon the insured,” states the deal.
