Following the National Assembly’s approval of the NHIF (Amendment) Bill No. 21 of 2021, Kenyan households would be obliged to make a monthly contribution of Ksh 500 to the National Hospital Insurance Fund.
As the Government simplifies access to excellent health care, Majority Leader Amos Kimunya’s bill makes it mandatory for everybody over the age of 18 to contribute to the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
Employers, on the other hand, were spared after the House rejected an amendment requiring them to pay an equivalent contribution to the fund for their employees.
Employers with employees earning less than Ks12,000 will be required to contribute more to the NHIF.
The bill, according to Kimunya, gets all Kenyans on board, from the employed to the jobless, as they strive to execute the NHIF bill’s universal health care scheme.
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Members of Parliament also established various categories and rates for self-employed Kenyans, with Kimunya claiming that this will guarantee that a self-contributor without a family pays a different rate than one who does.
While the Federation of Kenya Employers had petitioned Parliament to reject the modifications, MPs were unified in their belief that everyone should be covered by a public health insurance system that will ensure that everyone, regardless of their socioeconomic standing, has an opportunity to live a good life.
The National Assembly Committee on Health proposed changes to require the national and county governments to foot the price for impoverished households throughout the country, but the MPs rejected them.
The fund will now be transformed from Hospital Insurance to Health Insurance as a result of the modifications.
It would be a relief for Deputy President William Ruto, who had pushed Members of Parliament to speak up during debate on the NHIF Amendment bill.
“I make my plea on behalf of millions of hustlers and Kenyans at large who would-be beneficiaries of the scheme,” Ruto said, arguing that the NHIF law was four years behind schedule.
