President Ruto passed four historical bills on Thursday to approve the implementation of the much-awaited Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC). The bills which will see access to health facilities for Kenyans at an affordable rate and avoid the burden of payments will be paid by both employer and employees. Here is what Kenyans need to know:
Kenyans working in the formal sector will bear the biggest luggage in the deductions meant for health coverage. In the laws that will be gazetted soon after the presidential consent, employees in the formal sector will pay 2.75% more to fund the UHC program.
The 2.75% will be deducted from their monthly gross salary compared to only KES 500 a month that will be paid by those working in the informal sector to ensure health access to all.
The governments and county governments and development partners will also be involved in funding the UHC programs that includes, Social Health Insurance, Primary Healthcare, Digital Health and Facility improvement Financing.
The law also included the needy people in the country and it provided that national and county governments will pay for their contributions. Foreigners visiting Kenya for more than a year will also be mandated to contribute to the social health insurance scheme.
The law also locked adult Kenyans out of from government services if they did not contribute to the social health insurance fund.