Social health insurance is a health financing mechanism that pools the risk of its members, and their financial contributions. The major contributors are the households, enterprises and government. These contributions serve to pay for health services, thereby giving access to its members, irrespective of income or social status. Household contributions should be set such that they are based on ability to pay. Enterprise contributions are usually fixed as a percentage of wages and salaries. The level of government contributions is generally determined in such a way that they allow for the inclusion into the social health insurance system of those households that are unable to pay contributions. Kenya was one of those countries in Africa that developed legislation on National Social Protection very early after independence. This 2003 strategy provides guidelines on how the national social health insurance was to be implemented, and further describes what services were to be part of the essential health package.
The full document can be accessed using the link below