2.75% SHIF deductions to begin in March – CS Nakhumicha
Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Susan Nakhumicha on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, announced that the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) deductions begin this month.
Speaking during an interview with a local TV station, the CS asserted that the deductions will be gazetted tomorrow, Friday, March 8, 2024, to allow employers to foresee deductions at the end of the month.
The CS, however, stated that despite the deductions beginning soon, Kenyans will access services under the medical scheme in July.
She explained that the three-month gap will pave the way for the government to adequately prepare to provide service and actualise the scheme.
"We gazette regulations hopefully on Friday, once gazetted they come into effect the deductions begin end of the month which is end of March. 2.75 per cent of income, what we have had or desired that should have been done then is what we are going to do now, however, in terms of access to services, because we need to register people, we need to collect the contributions then now prepare to provide the service.
"Our projection is that from this month of March, we need three months to prepare ourselves, we need a digital system to do registration, we need to test it and then collect resources effective the new financial year which is July now Kenyans can begin accessing services," Nakhumicha said.
Addressing concerns about the medical scheme, Nakhumicha also clarified that unlike Kenyans in the formal sector who will be capped monthly, those in the informal sector will contribute their portions annually.
The CS assured citizens that everyone including those who cannot afford the Ksh300 minimum premiums will benefit from the scheme since the government has rolled out different approaches to ensure that every Kenyan was included.
While defending the scheme which replaces the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), Nakhumicha asserted that the new scheme will be more beneficial to Kenyans as everyone will be contributing.
"We have the informal where the issue is…being informal doesn’t mean that one does not have an income. We have people in the informal sector yet they earn millions and millions of shillings. We have put a mechanism so that at the point you interact with a government service, then you are required to pay for your SHA," the CS stated.
"For the informal, we will require you to pay for your annual premium, not monthly. The government has no other way of interacting with you as an informal person except that time you are coming for a service."
Adding:
"For those (informal) whose informal income is not uniform or consistent, such as construction where today they have Ksh.60,000 and the next month Ksh.10,000, we have made a provision that you pay once when you have the income. For those who don’t have but are likely to get it, we have put a mechanism for premium financing such as Hustler Fund where you can borrow money and pay for your SHA. We have a mechanism for the private sector, where they can borrow money and pay for your premiums."
