Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

Delays in the implementation of the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) are attributable to teething problems that will be addressed soon, President William Ruto said yesterday.

Speaking during a church service in Moiben, Uasin Gishu county, the president insisted that the new Fund will transform healthcare access to all.

“This fund will be a game-changer despite its shaky roll-out. These are teething hitches which our people are addressing,” he said, and acknowledged that there are challenges.

“In every transition there will be challenges, which we are managing. Last week we disbursed money for hospitals and dispensaries and next week will do the same until the transition is complete,” he added.

Across the country, initial glitches in the SHIF system left many patients unable to access medical services, causing widespread confusion and distress across the country.

Equitable access

President Ruto remained optimistic that the Fund will work and assured Kenyans that his administration will not be swayed by these setbacks. He affirmed that his government is committed to upholding the constitution by ensuring that disadvantaged households have equitable access to healthcare services.

“We want to ensure that anyone, regardless of whether they have financial capacity or not, can seek medical services without being turned back because they don’t have money. That’s the essence of the transition from the old model for delivery of health and the current model,” President Ruto explained.

So far over three million Kenyans have registered afresh with the president saying the new registration will ensure that no Kenyan is left out of accessing benefits rolled out under the re-tooled public healthcare system anchored on the Universal Healthcare pillar.

“We must use the benefit of using data and that’s the reason why we are asking every citizen to register so that we can be able to plan our health as a nation and know what’s the disease load in which area and we are able to plan,” he said.

Under Shif for salaried employees, the monthly contribution rate is 2.75 per cent of gross salary with a minimum contribution of Sh300 per month and no maximum contribution.  Employers must make this remittance by the ninth day of the subsequent month.

For non-salaried persons, the household will make an annual contribution set at a rate of 2.75 percent of the household income with a minimum contribution of Sh300 per month, and no maximum amount payable annually, within 14 days before the lapse of the annual contribution.

Cash payments

The Regulations stipulate that data will be collected on non-salaried households to determine and estimate their ability to pay Shif contributions based on housing characteristics, accessibility to basic services and household composition and characteristics.

The government discontinued the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) last month and directed all healthcare providers and patients to shift to the new system. However, the new scheme has failed in many health facilities forcing patients to pay in cash for their bills.

Activists have also moved to court challenging the implementation of the new health scheme with the hearing set