Government reveals plan to cover medical bills for Kenyans stranded abroad
The Cabinet Secretary of Health, Deborah Barasa, has announced plans by the government to help clear medical bills for Kenyans stuck in hospitals abroad
The Cabinet Secretary of Health, Deborah Barasa, has announced plans by the government to help clear medical bills for Kenyans stuck in hospitals abroad.
Speaking on Friday, November 8, when she presided over the graduation ceremony of specialised nurses at the Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital, Barasa announced that these cases would be addressed on a case-to-case basis.
“Regarding the stranded patients, we are requesting that they reach out through the call centre to the Social Health Authority (SHA) and each individual case will be addressed accordingly,” CS Barasa stated.
“But we are working on policies to ensure that there is accessible care even to that level because that was part of the benefits package.”
Since the SHA rollout in October this year, there have been reports of several more people stranded in hospitals abroad over delayed disbursement of funds by the Kenyan government to offset their medical fees.
This new trend is mostly due to the debts owed to the hospitals via the now-defunct National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
In a press briefing on November 7, Evans Majau, the chair for the Caucus of Patient-Led Organizations of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), accused SHA of not providing benefits outlined in their benefits package to the patients in hospitals.
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“We urge the ministry to restore the overseas treatment package for NCD patients. Many received essential treatments in India, Israel, and the UK, but now they’re left in limbo,” Majau stated.
“The ministry should address both domestic and international healthcare bills, crucial for citizens’ well-being.”
During her address, Barasa also announced that there had been a lot of misinformation being spread online since the implementation of SHA and announced that the majority of Kenyans had already started reaping its benefits including undergoing surgeries of up to Ksh900,000.
“It is just because of misinformation that Kenyans are not utilising the services. So we are looking to ensure that we have help desks across to the various constituencies so that people can actually register and have access to services,” she stated.
Regarding the registration process, Barasa announced that the number of Kenyans who had already registered with SHA is currently at 14 million.
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