NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 24 – Members of Parliament will resolve any problems that have sowed down the uptake of the new Social Health Authority registration, Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetangula has said.
Wetangula told MPs and County governments to take it upon themselves to popularise SHA at the grassroots level in order to make the public health scheme effective in the whole country.
“The County Government is the authority on the ground and it is your key responsibility to ensure that this programmes benefits wananchi in the devolved regions,”said Wetangula.
He added: “We urge you to register, let nobody cheat you, if there are issues, these MPs will resolve them in Parliament.”
Speaking in two separate funeral ceremonies, one in Budalangi, Busia County and another in Trans-Nzoia, Wetangula challenged the executive leadership of devolved regions in western Kenya to lead in the campaign to popularise SHA registration.
He noted that registration drive led by MPs and County Government executives in several Mt Kenya region counties had taken membership listing of SHA in those areas to higher levels that anywhere else in the country.
He explained, citing official statistics: “I Nyeri, which is number one in registration in the country, treatment cost is being catered for by government followed by Muranga, Kirinyaga and Embu.
The speaker noted that every big government programme usually encounters teething problems, as he promised that MPs are well attuned to dealing with all hitches affecting SHA in order to stabilise the health scheme.
Wetangula downplayed claims that SHA was causing heavy deductions on employees in private and public sector, noting that those in the higher earning brackets were paying more in order to cater for the poor who cannot affort high premiums.
Also to call on citizens to register in high numbers for SHA was Kiambu Women Representative Ann Wa Muratha who told Kenyans not to be left out of the new public insurance health scheme.
Wa Muratha, who was presiding over a fund-raiser for a patient’s hospital bill in Kiambu said such excercises to cater for hospital bills will not be necessary when SHA is fully operational.
“Let us all register with SHA so that hospital bills like this one will be catered for without putting families under financial distress,” said Wa Muratha.
Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Mulongo two weeks ago called upon MPs to take the SHA registration campaign to their constituencies.
Addressing a joint Speakers’ Kamukunji of the National Assembly and the Senate, Dr. Mulongo told MPs they were best placed to reach out to the grassroots in their regions in support of the SHA registration drive.
Mulongo told Parliament that the full impact of SHA, as envisaged in the Social Health Insurance Act (SHIA), will be felt when registration becomes widespread countrywide.
The Principal Secretary for Medical Services Harry Kimtai echoed the minister’s call to MPs, noting that mass registration will enable SHA to cater for the majority of poor Kenyans who seek treatment in primary health care facilities that are free for all registered members.
Said Kimtai in a media interview in his office: “Treatment at primary health care facilities like dispensaries will be free for all registered members, so it is for the good of all Kenyans to ensure all are registered.”
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