This archive report was first published on 18 October 2019.
Kenyan civil servants have been paying a hefty Sh 8.8 billion annually to the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) for health cover, but they have been receiving subpar services for the past eight years.
According to the Union of Public Servants, the NHIF has failed to deliver on its promises, leaving many civil servants without reliable health cover.
Speaking to Business Today, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Union of Public Servants, Mr. Jerry Ole Kina, revealed that the NHIF has demonstrated a lack of commitment to providing quality health services to civil servants.
“NHIF demonstrated a lack of commitment to actually conform to the provision of the contract that they signed to provide health cover for the civil servants,” Ole Kina noted.
The union has been trying to exit the NHIF medical scheme, but the process has been delayed due to the government's reluctance to accept the civil servants' exit.
As per the current deal, the NHIF gathers a whopping Sh 4.6 billion from the civil servants' monthly contribution every year, added to the premium cost of the scheme, which stands at Sh 4.2 billion, the NHIF gets Sh 8.8 billion every year.
Despite the huge amount of contribution the civil servants pay, they are not content with the services they get, which is why the union initiated a move to stop using the NHIF medical scheme.
A report by the task force revealed that the scheme offered a raw deal for majority of government workers, with fraudulent activities by healthcare providers, including forcing patients to buy medical supplies provided under the scheme.
Reports from external actuaries revealed that every year, civil servants only utilise Sh 2.5 billion out of the Sh 4.6 billion they contribute, let alone the premium cost of the cover.
Mr. Ole Kina said that neither the NHIF nor the government has moved to solve the issues revealed by the taskforce, and that the civil servants can actually do better without NHIF as they have done before.
“If before 2012, we did not have a medical scheme or an insurance company that could be able to administer our services, it does not mean that 8 years later, we can’t have a private company that cannot administer the services we seek,” Ole Kina said.
However, he said that the NHIF can still work with the civil servants if it does not want to be ditched by the union.
“NHIF can continue to underwrite the scheme but it should outsource an administrator of the scheme. Even though this option is likely to face a lot of challenges, at least there will be hope for the civil servants,” he noted.
Published on October 18, 2019, by Business Today.
