Wednesday October 30, 2024 – President William Ruto is walking the talk as far
as the health of Kenyans is concerned.
This is after he moved to clear
the billions the defunct National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) owed to
hospitals to allow them to continue treating Kenyans.
In a statement, Ruto, through
the Ministry of Health announced that it had released Ksh 9 billion to the
Social Health Authority (SHA) to help clear the NHIF debts.
According to the Health
Principal Secretary, Harry Kimtai, the funds will also include an additional
Ksh 1 billion for the Linda Mama Program.
The government plans to continue
with offering free healthcare to expectant mothers using the additional
allocation to the Linda Mama program.
Speaking in Nakuru during the
inauguration of the Rift Region Multi-Sectoral Committee, Kimtai revealed the
funds will reflect in hospitals’ bank accounts by the end of this week.
This announcement comes 29 days
after the rollout of SHA, which has been subject of debate over teething
problems experienced following the government’s decision to transition to SHIF
from NHIF.
Initially, faith based health
care institutions and other private facilities had threatened to down their
tools over what they termed as the government’s delay in releasing funds owed
to them by NHIF.
However, the PS affirmed that
the government was keen to address the challenges to ensure that no patients
were denied services amid the standoff.
This comes even as Kenyans
across the country, reporting to various hospitals continue to highlight cases
of being denied services which has been partly attributed to the payment
stalemate.
The Kenyan DAILY POST
