The government is to pay all claims under the National Hospital Insurance Fund amounting to Sh10 million and below as it seeks to win Kenyans’ support for the Social Health Authority.

In a statement released last evening as the SHA issues dominated public debates, President Ruto said NHIF debts have been a heavy burden on healthcare facilities and providers for the past 10 years.

“This has had a devastating effect in the provision of health services in public, faith-based and private hospitals…By the time the NHIF was wound up on November 22, 2024, it had a whopping debt of Sh33 billion, affecting the ability of health facilities to provide services under the Social Health Authority (SHA),” the Head of State said.

To comprehensively deal with this challenge, he added, the government resolved to pay all hospitals with total claims of Sh10 million and below in full, representing 91 per cent of all facilities that were contracted by NHIF.

The remaining nine per cent of hospitals, with total claims of above Sh10 million, the President said, will be subjected to a verification exercise that should be completed within 90 days after which a payment plan will be agreed on.

“The Cabinet Secretary will gazette the verification committee within a week,” the President said.

Under SHA, the President said, current claims will continue to be paid within a month.

“To date, SHA has paid all undisputed claims lodged since its inception on October 1, 2024, and up to January 31, 2025, totalling KSh18.2 billion,” he said.

President Ruto whose administration has come under heavy criticism over the implementation of SHA said the government is fully committed to providing Universal Health Coverage to every Kenyan without discrimination.

“I would like to assure all Kenyans that any challenges being experienced in the implementation of Taifa Care are being attended to and resolved,” the President who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces, said.

The President’s statement came a day after Auditor General Nancy Gathungu in her latest audit report showed that despite massive public investment, the State neither owns nor controls the system. Gathungu stated that the system components and intellectual property rights is owned by a consortium.

In her report, Gathungu blamed the state officers for giving up ownership of the system and all its intellectual property rights to a private entity with the contract stating that any dispute is to be settled under the rules of the London Court of International Arbitration.

The move Gathungu has warned, will limit the government’s authority and oversight over the SHA system.