Health ministry urges MPs to back SHA registration drive

Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Mulongo has implored Members of Parliament to support the ministry’s campaign aimed at convincing more Kenyans to register for the new health scheme under the Social Health Authority (SHA).

CS Mulongo spoke when she appeared before MPs during what was dubbed the Speaker’s Kamkunji, organized for ministry officials to respond to frequently asked questions from the electorate regarding the teething problems the healthcare scheme has been facing.

She admitted that, while progress had been made in encouraging the public to register, a large segment of the population was still grappling with misinformation.

“We believe that as leaders, you can use your offices which are paid by us as PSC to support the process of registration of wananchi who probably have not been told well as to whether the registration process costs money or not," said National Speaker Moses Wetangula.

"This is not an AI generated program, a computer will give you what you feed it, if you don’t register you are not captured and you don’t get the service. We need to work together to help Kenyans access this medicare rolled out by the government."

Senate Speaker Amason Kingi echoed Wetangula's sentiments, emphasizing that inadequate public sensitization had allowed social media influencers to mislead unsuspecting members of the public.

“There is something lacking that the public are yet to understand, as leaders we have the Herculean task to address this. When you see the public refusing to register because they claim they are being asked to pay a certain amount and yet registration is free, this means we have some work,” Kingi stated.

In her presentation, CS Mulongo revealed that 9.8 million Kenyans had migrated to SHA, attributing the challenges that people seeking medical services have faced to issues like failure to register while seeking services, lack of the required documentation, and the omission of dependents during registration.

 “For the elderly people even when you try to register them, it is giving you an error. Also documentation, sometimes they ask for a marriage certificate and many of our old people don’t have, you need to look at that,” said Nominated MP Sabina Chege.

“There are many patients who go home because they are told you pay Ksh.200,000 and they cannot afford especially in the hard to reach areas. Let us look at the bigger picture and that is affordable, accessible, quality care to all Kenyans, leaving no one behind, we really need your support in championing," CS Mulongo added.

The CS also provided a breakdown of the status of Universal Health Care implementation, progress of SHA registration, benefits, package, applicable tariffs, and the means-testing tool used for SHA. Some members had expressed concerns that the means-testing tool was opaque and might suffer the same fate as the university funding model.

“I came when the plane was just leaving the runway, and yes, we faced a little bit of turbulence and thick clouds, but we are happy to report that now we are above and really steering. We are confident that we will reach our destination of Vision 2030, having attained affordable, accessible quality care for all Kenyans,” said the Health CS.

Further, she dispelled the notion that the Linda Mama maternity package under NHIF had been discontinued, clarifying that: “For Linda Mama, mothers are covered for pregnancy and childbirth under NHIF, but under SHA, the coverage extends to the entire household. The mother can receive antenatal care, deliver, and have postnatal care, but the husband and other children are also covered, including the newborn.”

Members also inquired about the fate of NHIF employees caught in the middle of the transition process.

Ministry officials explained that they would be seconded to the Public Service Commission (PSC) for six months, after which the authority would make a decision on how many would be retained under permanent, pensionable positions, with the remainder being redeployed to other government agencies.

The CS further clarified that medical procedures across different facilities had been standardized and should cost the same, regardless of the facility.