Kenya: New documents on national hospital insurance fund (NHIF) available in the documents section
Two documents have been recently uploaded to the documents section of the Kenya country page. An assessing the feasibility of the amendment of the NHIF stipulating that all Kenyans must be registered under in the new universal health...
Is Kenya’s national hospital insurance fund (NHIF) amendment bill a silver bullet for universal health coverage (UHC)?
The NHIF amendment bill is part of Government of Kenya plan for achieving UHC. The goal of the UHC program is to provide health care for all based on need-not on ability to pay. One of the proposals in the 2021 NHIF amendment bill stipulates that all Kenyans must be...
Universal health care coverage (UHC): healthcare financing and access to health care services in Kenya
Reliance on out-of-pocket (OOP) payments to finance health care is a barrier to health care access and can result in the impoverishment of households. Health care in Kenya is financed from three main sources: OOP expenditure (households), government expenditure and...
“We are called the et cetera”: experiences of the poor with health financing reforms that target them in Kenya
Kenya has implemented a number of healthcare reforms, demonstrating its intention to extend financial risk protection and service coverage for poor and vulnerable groups. These reforms include the provision of free maternity services, user-fee removal in public...
Towards universal health coverage (UHC) in Kenya: are we on the right path?
The Kenyan government made a commitment to achieve UHC by the year 2022, embodied in the governments big 4 agenda that includes healthcare for all as one of the key development goals. Prioritizing UHC as a global and country health policy goal has highlighted the need...
The progressivity of health care financing in Kenya
Healthcare financing should be equitable to ensure equal access to quality care and financial risk protection from exorbitant health care costs, through social health protection. In many low and middle income countries including Kenya, changes to healthcare financing...
The path to universal health coverage (UHC) in Kenya: Repositioning the role of national hospital insurance fund (NHIF)
The NHIF was given a mandate by the Ministry of Health of Kenya to implement UHC in October, 2012. This generated controversy among key stakeholders concerned about allegations inefficiencies and precarious financial sustainability of the initiative. However, the...
Policy levers and priority-setting in universal health coverage (UHC): a qualitative analysis of healthcare financing agenda setting in Kenya
In light of the centrality of UHC in driving current health policy in Kenya, this paper examines the value interests that influence agenda setting in the country’s health financing space. Given the plurality of Kenya’s health policy levers, the authors aimed to...
National Social Health Insurance Strategy
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...
Kenya health financing system assessment, 2018: Time to pick the best path
This report assesses the Kenyan health financing system in light of ongoing reforms and the Government of Kenya’s (GOK’s) ambitious commitments to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) through multiple initiatives. International experience suggests that effective...
Kenya health financing profile
This brief 2016 discusses Kenya’s the health financing profile, exploring the main health sector source of financing.. It also look at the health financing reforms that the country had undertaken with the goal of moving towards universal health coverage. The reforms...
Indicators for universal health coverage (UHC): Can Kenya meet the proposed post-2015 monitoring recommendations?
UHC, referring to access to healthcare without financial burden, has received renewed attention in global health spheres. UHC is a potential goal in the post-2015 development agenda. Monitoring of progress towards achieving UHC is thus critical at both country and...
Health care financing reforms in Kenya
The overall objective of the Kenyan’s health sector is to attain universal coverage of critical services that positively contribute to the health of the population. The government of Kenya recognised the critical role that health financing plays and embarked on...
Examining purchasing reforms towards universal health coverage (UHC) by the national hospital insurance fund (NHIF) in Kenya
Kenya has prioritized the attainment of UHC through the expansion of health insurance coverage by the NHIF. In 2015, the NHIF introduced reforms in premium contribution rates, benefit packages, and provider payment methods. In this study, the authors examine the...
A critical analysis of purchasing arrangements in Kenya: The case of micro health insurance
Strategic purchasing can ensure that financial resources are used in a way that optimally enhances the attainment of health system goals among them the attainment of universal health coverage. A number of low- and middle-income countries, including Kenya, have...