Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa was on Monday, September 30, 2024, at pains to explain how people in the informal sector will remit their Social Health Authority deductions.
Speaking at the Parliament’s Health Committee, CS Barasa said that those in the informal sector would be placed in bands but failed to avail the particular banding segments for the same.
While attempting to explain how the deductions would be made, CS Barasa revealed that it would be similar to the Hustler Fund.
“We envision that every month, they will be able to deduct; so it would be almost similar to those who are employed,” CS Barasa said.
“Where are you deducting from? Because the lady who is working in my vice-chair’s shamba and is earning this much; how are you going to deduct it,” Parliament’s Health Committee chairperson Robert Pukose quipped.
“It will be similar to the Hustler Fund but with zero interest,” CS Barasa added. “What I can assure is that the accuracy is 95 per cent.”
Means testing instrument
On his part, the Social Health Authority (SHA) acting CEO Elijah Wachira said that the means testing instrument for the banding of Kenyans in the informal sector will consider at least 17 variables. The lowest monthly contribution is capped at Ksh300 while those in formal employment will part with 2.75 per cent of their gross salaries.
With its planned roll-out slated for tomorrow- October 1, 2024, confusions abound in the entire SHA system, with the government noting that it has registered only 2 million against a target of 12 million households ahead of the official commissioning of the new health system.
Mandatory SHA registration
To access public health services, the state will require that all Kenyans register for the SHA. In this system, people will be able to access primary healthcare, social healthcare and emergency and chronic illnesses healthcare.
Non-salaried contributors are expected to fill out a questionnaire with the household income information among other various parameters which would be then keyed into a system which will compute their monthly deductions.
According to the Social Health Act, any person who fails to pay their monthly deductions is liable for a penalty of 2 per cent of the premium owed.
The Authority projects an annual income of Ksh100 billion for the SHA if it becomes fully operational with paid-up members.
Also, private partners who will be managing SHA’s Integrated Health Technology System (IHTS) are expected to contribute Ksh104.8 billion towards the project. The companies who will run the system are Safaricom, Ageiro and Konvergenz.
