Written By Gerald Gekara
President Uhuru Kenyatta is scheduled to launch The Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC) programme in Port Reitz, Mombasa county.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the UHC rollout will ease access to health services for millions of Kenyans.
UHC is one of the “Big Four” strategic pillars declared by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Kagwe said the president will officially launch the programme on Monday at the Port Reitz sub county hospital.
Kagwe inspected the Port Reitz sub county hospital ahead of the presidential function accompanied by Coast Regional Commissioner John Elungata and Mombasa County Commissioner Lucas Katee.
The Health CS said the government will now be scaling up universal health coverage based on the experiences from the pilot phase of the programme in four counties.
He said the government will now shift focus on further reforming the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), establishing a mandatory universal health coverage scheme, adopting an essential package of health services, and providing health coverage for an initial 1 million low-income households to be biometrically registered.
“The implementation of universal health coverage as one of the big four agenda will in the long run ensure that all individuals and communities have access to quality essential health services without suffering from financial hardships” said Kagwe.
The national government is championing the big four agenda of food security and nutrition, affordable housing, universal healthcare and manufacturing.
