Health CS Susan Nakhumicha has explained the metrics which was used to arrive at the figure of 2.75 per cent as the maximum contribution to the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF). Under the new healthcare funding plan, Kenyans will now be mandated to contribute 2.75 per cent of their gross salary to the SHIF, which now replaces the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).

Speaking on Wednesday, Nakhumicha said the decision was made after actuaries that both the Ministry of Health and NHIF did an analysis and found disparities in the amount paid by Kenyans. An actuary, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is a person whose job is to calculate risk for insurance companies and pension funds. Nakhumicha said an analysis by the data experts shows that Kenyans earning lower income were paying more to the fund while those with higher incomes were contributing a paltry 0.01 per cent.

“What we did was to look at the baseline in the existing NHIF, what were the ranges of payment and when we looked at it, the person who was paying the most is anybody who was earning Sh10,000 and below. They were paying up to 5 per cent of their income to NHIF,” Nakhumicha said.

She said the person who was earning the highest who is the President is currently paying Sh.1,700 and his salary is Sh.1 million plus so that makes it that he pays 0.01 per cent of his income to NHIF.

“It then disadvantages the person with low income, this is somebody earning Sh.10,000, they are paying five per cent then there is someone earning a  million they are paying 0.01 per cent so then we looked at an average of this,” the CS explained.

She further noted that the figure was arrived at after costing the country’s healthcare at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. She added that the costing plan showed that Sh.80 billion is required to run healthcare services at the primary level including management of Community Health Promoters, Sh.130 billion for secondary and Sh.46 billion for tertiary levels respectively.

“Based on that costing, then doing the actuarial we arrived at 2,75 per cent of income; if every Kenyan was able to pay that we should be able to take care of the whole healthcare,” she said.

By Lean simatwa