EDITORIAL: MoH should get creative to encourage payments

The launch of the new Social Health Authority that replaced the much-maligned National Health Insurance Fund was marked by high expectations, with government promising a radical shift in service delivery.

But five months into the launch, the teething problems continue to fester. Many rural or church-backed hospitals still turn away patients because the Ministry of Health has not lived up to its promises to settle Sh30 billion unpaid arrears inherited from the NHIF.

But even as the ministry bureaucrats fumble around for cash, it emerges that the rosy projections as to how non-employed members would contribute their fare share and help reduce the burden from formal employee contributions have hit a snag.

A Senate report reveals SHA has 18 million members but a paltry four million make monthly contributions via their pay slips.

If 14 million people do not contribute, it follows that the system is unsustainable. It will crumble under the weight of such heavy underfunding.

We are in the country of M-Pesa and we see no reason why a creative solution cannot be crafted that ropes in everybody by a small fee charged on every transaction.

M-Pesa, after all, carries out an average of 10 million transactions a day. It’s an option the MoH must start to consider.

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Quote of the day: “A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed.” —Norwegian playwright and theatre director Henrik Ibsen was born on March 20, 1828.