Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe (pictured) has said the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) programme will be launched afresh to serve Kenyans better.UHC, whose pilot phase was launched in December 2018 by President Uhuru Kenyatta. It is intended to ensure all Kenyans have access to preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services at minimum financial burden.
Kagwe said the programme will be under the National Hospital Insurance Fund, which will biometrically capture the details of everyone registered. The pilot phase covered Machakos, Kisumu, Nyeri and Isiolo counties. The lessons learnt will inform the roll out of UHC in the rest of the country.
Senator Ephraim Maina, and Governor Mutahi Kahiga from the pilot region have called for the UHC to be extended as many people will be exposed after the expiry of the pilot phase.
Governor Kahiga said it will not be possible to sustain the free healthcare services without the same being supplemented by other health insurers. He said the county’s resources were strained by communicable diseases like Covid-19 and non-communicable ones like cancer, diabetes and hypertension.
Advocacy Action: Have estimates been made of the cost of diabetes in your county and projected costs into the future? Is there a national plan to reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes and treat the condition in ways that reduce expensive complications later in life?