Hard economic times push 5m Kenyans out of national health insurance cover

About five million Kenyans have stopped paying the monthly contributions to the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), chief executive officer Dr Peter Kamunyo has revealed.

On Monday, Dr Kamunyo said most of the Kenyans defaulting on their monthly

-

payments cited hard economic times brought about by disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kamunyo noted that out of 10.46 million Kenyans who have signed up for the NHIF cover, only 5.1 million Kenyans are actively servicing their subscriptions.

He warned that the trend was worrying as it comes at a time when high cost of treatment in both public and private hospitals is becoming a big burden to many households.

“Our current statistics place the number of households under NHIF at 10.46 million but unfortunately, out of this number, only 5.1 million are actively servicing their subscriptions,” said Kamunyo.

He was speaking at the Windsor Golf Club Hotel in Kiambu where NHIF signed a partnership with the Boda Boda Association of Kenya.

The Fund is targeting to sign up more boda boda riders to the platform. The NHIF boss lauded the role of both the national government and county governments for chipping in to help some poor households keep their subscriptions active.

“But all is not lost and we are happy by the interventions being made by both the national and county government where the counties have come in handy to help pay for the households who cannot afford to pay for the cover,” he added

Kamunyo also said that there was a worrying trend of medical fraud targeting NHIF through impersonation and falsification of claims with 19 cases currently in court. – DAILY NATION, Kenya.