Health insurance in Kenya: Patients using insurance cards are charged up to 50 times more than those paying in cash for the same procedure at the same hospital.
This is according to a health report that appeared in the Business Daily.
“The highly exaggerated cost of healthcare by health service providers when they bill patients with insurance cards is a cause for worry by the Ministry of Health,” the report says.
“A recently released report by the Ethics and Anti-corruption commission (EACC) revealed that there is widespread variation in what different hospitals charge for the same medical procedures.”
In the report, a surgical operation to remove the urinary bladder, for example, can cost Sh. 7,500 for cash-paying patients, but the price shoots up to Sh. 90,000 for those paying National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) and other insurance cards.
An insurance card holder can also pay as much as Sh. 35,000 for removal of a nasal pack yet the same services typically cost a cash-paying patient Sh. 700.
The same differential pricing is witnessed for a caesarean section client who will pay Sh. 20,000 for the services while a card holder will be slapped with a Sh. 90,000 bill.
In Nyeri County for example, a facility offers free services for children below five years while another charges children who were covered by NHIF, the report revealed.
