SHIF is a big scam as KMPDU now exposes how RUTO’s insurance company and other private companies will exploit Kenyans

Wednesday, October 2, 2024 – The newly launched Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) could be a big scandal in waiting.

This is after the Kenya Medical and Dentists Practitioners Union (KMPDU) exposed how private companies will exploit poor Kenyans and benefit from them without doing much in return.

In a statement, KMPDU Secretary General Davji Atellah stated that the scheme is set for collapse.

He maintained that the scheme was set to deny Kenyans access to medical care even as the government continued the rollout program despite protests from key stakeholders such as the doctor’s union.

"We have repudiated the act from November 2023 with one message, "It will deny Kenyans access to healthcare,’’ maintained Atellah.

‘’The Social Health Insurance Fund is a capsizing ship! There is too much bilge water for it to sail."

Atellah added that the now defunct health insurance scheme, the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), was way superior to all other medical insurance schemes currently offered to Kenyans.

The KMPDU boss also read malice on the payment component of the new scheme noting that it was subject to fraud.

He added that the stoppage of NHIF was designed to benefit private insurance companies operating in the country.

"A social insurance law with a co-payment component is a fraud. We have consistently warned that the comprehensive medical package provided by NHIF was superior to all other private sector insurance plans,’’ he explained.

According to KMPDU, the new scheme will wreak havoc on civil servants as they are set to dig deeper into their pockets in contributions to the fund.

The medical union added that they had initially relinquished their medical allowances that they were receiving from their employer for a comprehensive medical cover only to be met by the new medical scheme, which they maintain will not be of good use to them.

The union also took issue with Members of Parliament for having given a nod to the new scheme without considering the implications it was set to pose to Kenyans.

The Kenyan DAILY POST