Nairobi, Kenya - Kenya's cabinet has approved the implementation of a new health insurance scheme for teachers and the military, requiring US$465 million to finance yearly, a senior official said here. Kenya’s Medical Services Minister Anyang Nyongo said Monday the Cabinet approved the revised health insurance scheme as a compromise to an earlier scheme put forth by the Ministries of Planning and Health, which was shelved due to lack of funds. “The government could not commit to providing the Ksh40 billion (US$465 million) to finance a universal health insurance scheme as sought in an earlier bill, which President Mwai Kibaki returned to Parliament in 2004,” Nyongo told journalists.

The earlier scheme faced strong opposition from the private sector, and the President eventually declined to sign it to law, citing the high cost of its financing.

Teachers and the military would part with 3% of their monthly pay, shared equally by the employer, in this case the Kenyan government, which would provide 1.5% while the remaining 1.5% would be deducted from the teacher’s salaries, Nyongo said.

The compromised health insurance deal would not stop the government from contributing to the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), he added.

Nyongo, who addressed a news conference after the launch of a report on the financing of the African healthcare sector, dubbed healthy partnerships, said other sources of financing were required to meet the country’s healthcare needs.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private-sector lending arm, which examined the continental healthcare systems in a bid to point out the weaknesses that need improvements, authored the report.

Former Nigerian Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo said the expansion of health insurance was key to improving the provision of healthcare, but should not be viewed as an end in itself in addressing the weaknesses identified.

“These initiatives will have a big impact on the region’s healthcare,” Lambo said during a joint press conference, flanked by the IFC officials.

Lambo said it was almost difficult to recommend the standardisation of healthcare services across Africa, but noted that a framework that can be adopted by all African countries to guide them in the regulation of the health sector could be sought.

Nyongo blamed the deteriorating standards in the provision of state-funded healthcare on the accelerated population growth and the influx of patients who favoured the public healthcare systems in the early 1980s, when it was still better than the private sector.

“The crowding at the major hospitals is due to the failure to develop health services at the ground level,” Nyongo said, adding that ongoing initiatives seek to improve the supply of drugs and medical kits to state-funded hospitals.

He said these targets would only be achieved if the government stuck to its commitments to the implementation of the Abuja Plan of Action, which seeks the raising of healthcare budgets to help improve the provision of healthcare.

Pana 07/06/2011