By Patricia Mollyne Mataga
President William Ruto received a brief from the Ministry of Health on Thursday, June 27, 2024, over the rollout of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Ruto, in a post on his social media pages, said Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Wafula and Principal Secretary Mary Muthoni delivered the brief.
According to Ruto, UHC coverage is a key promise of his manifesto. He noted that the program aims to ensure Kenyans access to free health services even for critical illness.
The President noted that his administration has already set up three funds under the Social Health Insurance Fund that will meet the cost of UHC.
“Universal Health Coverage is a key promise in our manifesto. The programme aims at ensuring that all Kenyans access free quality health services, including for critical illnesses such as cancer,” Ruto said in part of his post on X, formerly Twitter.
“The government has set up three funds to meet the cost of Universal Health Coverage. These are the Primary Health Care Fund, Social Health Insurance Fund and Emergency Chronic and Critical Illness Fund,” he added.
The government has been working on providing medical insurance coverage for every Kenyan within the next five years. Initially, the authorities were targeting 100% coverage by 2022.
The Kenyan government piloted a universal health coverage programme in four of its 47 counties in 2020, easing access to health services for millions of people3. The programme has since added more than 200 community health units, with 7700 community health volunteers and over 700 health workers recruited.
The meeting between President Ruto and Ministry of Health officials comes ahead of the official rollout of the new Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF).
The funds aim to replace the existing NHIF (National Health Insurance Fund) and provide universal health coverage to all Kenyans, regardless of their employment status.
Kenyans will pay as low as Ksh300 for the SHIF while the salaried will pay a fixed rate of 2.75 per cent every month to the fund.