One must have a heart of stone not to be moved by the suffering that hundreds of thousands of ailing Kenyans — particularly the poor and the elderly — are having to endure due to failure by the new health system to ensure they get timely treatment.
The whole point of changing, reforming or tweaking with public programmes, such as the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), is to make provision of health services seamless.
What has happened, instead, is that Kenyans in dire need of urgent health services have been subjected to regrettable pain because the Government appears to be in an unexplained hurry to move the health insurance scheme from a public institution and into the hands of private entities.
In the process, not only has the Government interfered with citizens’ rights to medical services, it has also migrated their sensitive data to a new system without adequate consultation either with the public or other stakeholders as required by law.
Consequently, it should not come as a surprise if and when such data is sold to third parties — including, God forbid, Big Pharma — thus exposing the soft under belly of the country and putting millions at the mercy of pharmaceuticals.
And in the event that the new system is challenged in court, it will be difficult for the Government to wiggle itself out of the legal straitjacket it has put itself into.
Again, there are still too many questions regarding the implementation of the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), its cost to contributors and its supposed benefits.
It is also not clear why it is being shoved down the throats of Kenyans, like bitter medicine, when the Health Ministry had the opportunity to conduct member education and prepare a smooth transition.
As it is now, all indications are that the public is being forced into swallowing the new system without adequate consultation.
Reports also indicate that the new information and communication system will cost taxpayers Sh104 billion, a huge sum given that the country is struggling under debt distress and has been spending less than five per cent of its national budget on development — the lowest in the country’s history.
As citizens, we will more than interested to know how the cost was arrived at and whether it is value for money given accusations that the system has deployed an open-source software that is freely available and an upgrade of NHIF would have cost less than Sh700m. Who is pocketing all that money?
What value is the public getting in return? How will the new system affect the health and wellbeing of Kenyans? How will it improve the outcomes of various health interventions when, already, there are so many complaints that the spending limits imposed on each member are grossly reduced compared to NHIF provisions?
Instead of grappling with such an important matter, the entire country is obsessed with debate on whether to impeach Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, a move that, outside triggering political re-alignments, is unlikely to change the lives or livelihoods of Kenyans for the better. That means we have chosen to sacrifice the welfare, lives and health of Kenyans at the altar of politics.
And rather than ask the hard questions about what Kenya needs, how we can move forward in terms of easing the pain of citizens being turned away from hospitals — or being asked to pay out of pocket for treatment — we have immersed all our beings and souls into the impeachment debate.
As it is, spending on health remains the second biggest cost in family budgets (after food). This has conspired to eat away savings, thus leaving many families vulnerable to economic shocks even as the Government keeps releasing data to show that the cost of living is declining.
This brings us to an important consideration that public officials need to bear in mind at all times: All new programmes and policies, at the end of the day, must be designed in such a way that citizens, not suppliers, are the first and primary beneficiaries.
Unfornately, the opposite is true for Kenya, whether you are talking about health, energy or the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
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