Kenyans could start contributing to Social Health Authority programmes by March

In the wake of the lifting of the court orders against the implementation of the Social Health Insurance Act 2023, the Ministry of Health has set the ball rolling with the opening up of the space for public participation in the regulations that will guide the implementation of the Act.

In a statement, Health CS, Susan Nakhumicha is asking members of the public to present their views on the two sets of regulations, either through written memoranda or through physical and virtual meetings that will be held for this purpose.

The ministry is seeking views on the Social Health Insurance General Regulations 2024, which will provide for the implementation of the Primary healthcare fund, the social health insurance fund, the emergency chronic and critical illness fund, and the Social Health Insurance Dispute Resolution Tribulation Regulations 2024.

The public is also expected to give their views on the draft regulatory impact statement.

The regulations were amended to address the matters that landed the ministry in court which now state that every person living in Kenya will be required to register as a member of the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) for purposes of sub-regulation, this registration will begin 90 days after the regulations come into force, every person living in Kenya will access healthcare serviced under the primary healthcare fund.

The new regulations have maintained the deductions for salaried employees at 2.75 per cent per month, while unsalaried households will also pay 2.75 per cent of their income per year, based on the assessment of the status through the means testing instruments that take into account housing characteristics, access to basic services, household composition and other socio-economic aspects of the households under review.

The least amount payable to the fund will be Ksh.300.

The collections will be made through the CS for Treasury at the national level, and CECs for Treasury activities at the county level.

The regulations do not address the issue of capping contributions and is one of the issues that the public will be expected to give their views on in the next three weeks.

The ministry will hope to compile and finalise the analysis of the feedback from the public, prepare a report on the same and present it for approval from both the national assembly and the senate health committee, before gazettement and finally, implementation of the same.

This process is estimated to be concluded before March, and only then will the government begin deducting the contributions from Kenyans to finance this universal healthcare programme under the Social Health Insurance Act.