Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Deborah Barasa was unable to explain how the Social Health Authority (SHA) will be making deductions from Kenyans for the medical scheme.
While appearing before a parliamentary committee on Monday, September 30, the CS was at pains to explain measures that have been put in place for deductions from individuals in the informal sector.
Additionally, the committee questioned how the Ministry of Health would categorize various individuals with different businesses and ways of life in the informal sector.
However, the CS was unable to clearly state how that would be done, saying that her ministry was 95 percent sure that their methodology was accurate.
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Read Excerpt from the Session
Health CS: What we envision is that every month we will be able to deduct from what they are getting so it will be a bit similar to those who are employed.
Committee Chairman: Where are you deducting from? Because the lady who is working in my Vice Chair’s shamba and is earning, how are you going to deduct it?
Health CS: It will be similar to the hustler’s fund but with zero percent interest.
Committee Chairman: How will you deduct it, from Mpesa?
Health CS: Silent.
Committee Chairman: CS How are you going to deduct that money from those in the informal sector? Explain to Kenyans, is it through Mpesa, through what? And with the banding, how will you do that?
How have you categorized them that one category will pay this amount and the other will pay another amount for contribution? We want to understand that flow.
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Health CS on Bands and Categories
Health CS: For the Ministry of Education, the challenge was that the bands were larger, but for us, the bands are smaller.
Committee Chairman: Which are? Just explain the banding, what are the bands you have?
Health CS: We will give you the reports for the bands but what I can assure you is that the accuracy is 95 percent.
Committee Chairman: Kenyans are listening, and they want to see their Cabinet Secretary for Health explain how they are going to be categorized based on your means testing. That is all we want.
Vice Chairman: What are the chiefs doing because you have been training them? What will they be telling people? What is the 2.7 percent deduction? This is what should go to the public tomorrow, how will they pay?
We don’t want this system to fail because someone is not doing their job. How do you show up before this committee without understanding how this works? It is not fair.
On the other hand, SHA CEO Elijah Wachira said that Kenyans in the informal sector can access information on how much they will contribute through registration.
Further, he noted that registered users will be allowed to contest the amount payable if they are not comfortable with it, or when they realize that they have been wrongfully categorized.
“It is not one variable that is determining the amount of money a household is supposed to pay. We are using about 17 variables ranging from your source of water, source of power, and many other things.
“The science behind it is able to give the households the amount they will contribute,” he said.
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