The Ministry of Health has revealed that the majority of Kenyans have shunned the healthcare funding program Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) which replaced the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
According to the ministry, 16.1 million Kenyans who have registered under the Social Health Authority are not contributing to the scheme. This means that out of the 19.4 million Kenyans who have registered, only 3.3 million are making contributions.
“Health services are expensive and we cannot only have those in the formal employment category bearing the burden of the rest of the Kenyan population,” said Dr. Patrick Amoth, the Director General of Health.
“We appeal to all those who have registered to ensure that they go through the means, testing process, generate their premiums, and actually commit to paying for that,” he added. Dr. Amoth, who was in the company of Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa acknowledged that the failure by the majority of Kenyans to pay for SHIF is crippling the provision of health services.
The replacement of NHIF by SHIF brought on board a new format in salary deductions, with the SHIF deductions being larger in comparison to the old NHIF deductions. Under SHIF, all workers get deducted 2.5 per cent of their salaries.
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Under the SHIF deductions, Kenyans earning Sh. 100,000 part with an additional Sh. 1,050 while Kenyans earning a monthly salary of Sh. 200,000 pay an extra Sh. 3,800 per month.
Those earning Sh. 20,000 are deducted Sh. 550, while those earning Sh. 50,000 pay Sh. 1,375 to the government scheme. Those earning Sh. 100,000 pay Sh. 2,750.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, 8,813 out of 17,755 health facilities in the country have enrolled with the Social Health Authority, representing a 56 per cent enrolment.
The new health funding program has been dogged by controversies. Multiple cases of patients being turned away from hospitals or hospitals refusing to accept SHIF from admitted patients have been widely reported in the media since the program went into force in October 2024.
