With Kenya launching the new Social Health Authority (SHA) insurance system, many are raising questions about whether the new insurance scheme will be any different from the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), and the economic advisor to the president David Ndii has chimed in on the concerns.
Responding to concerns from Kenyans, Economic Advisor to the President, David Ndii, has stated that SHA has assisted the government in getting rid of ghost workers in the government’s initial NHIF health insurance scheme.
“The ghost members have been exposed during the migration of data. If we had not shut down NHIF they would have remained in the system forever generating claims for the cartels. No wonder the biggest fight we have had is to retain NHIF systems,” Ndii explained.
He explained that NHIF had 3 million ghost workers, defending the need to launch a whole new system with SHA to prevent fraud and corruption in the healthcare insurance system in the country.
“You call 3 million ghost members a few loopholes. A nondescript private hospital in Kinoo conducting more operations than Kenyatta? One facility paid for eight amputations on the same patient?” he explained.
Ndii Explains MPESA’s Role in SHA Integrity
The economist also defended the use of Safaricom in rooting out rogue officials who penetrated the previous insurance scheme NHIF.
“That’s why we have outsourced to Safaricom so that they can deploy the capability that runs MPESA. The main consideration for Safaricom is the robustness of its MPESA platform. No other company can guarantee the efficiency, reliability, and security to deliver the real-time connectivity and transaction capacity we need for the digital health platform,” he stated.
Also Read: Govt Issues Directive to NHIF Patients After SHA Rollout
On why the government has to spend Ksh 104 billion, Ndii said the money was payment for technology services, adding the cost matches the need.
“We’ve outsourced the entire technology platform. Ksh104 billion is the total cost of ownership over 10 years. Expensive? We average 3 hospital visits a year. A population of 60 million = 180 million visits =Ksh55 user fee per visit. No operation or corruption risk. Looks like value for money to me,” he explained.
This comes even as the government launches the Social Health Authority (SHA) today, October 1, 2024, which has seen the NHIF building in Nairobi rebranded to SHA.
Also Read: Unpacking Formula Govt Will Use to Determine What Unemployed Kenyans Will Pay to SHA
The government’s push for the new insurance scheme is targeted at enhancing health insurance coverage to ensure more Kenyans are covered and can access more treatment services, including emergency, critical care, and primary health care.
It remains to be seen how the SHA rollout will be implemented and challenges fixed.
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