The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF will stop making payments for chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, kidney and heart disease in private hospitals if changes of reducing payouts will be approved by members of parliament.
State requires NHIF to insure patients with chronic diseases in government hospitals especially in Kenyatta National Hospital and Moi Referral Hospital.
The new regulations states that Beneficiaries with chronic diseases should get their treatment from public health facilities.
This will disadvantage the the low- income patients as most of them depend fully on NHIF for treatment, drugs and other hospital expenses.
The private hospitals like Mater, Nairobi west and Nairobi hospital will also be challenged since they receive billions of money to give treatment to patients with chronic diseases.
Public hospitals have got a big challenge to treat people with these chronic diseases due to lack of enough doctors and equipments. This is due to mismanagement by county government and reduced budgetary allocations.
There’s no specific definition for chronic diseases, it depends on the definitions from the US public health agency and the Centre’s for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As per the CDC, chronic disease is defined as a condition that requires ongoing medical attention or a condition that limits daily living activities that lasts for more than one year.
It will be a major blow to those patients who undergo renal dialysis, major surgeries and diagnostic tests like MRI and CT-scans as NHIF plans to reduce payouts.
The NHIF has since stated that there are people with chronic diseases that are joining the insurance company in order of easing their medical bills.
Most of these people are from the informal sector who pay Ksh 500 per month or ksh6,000 but are receiving benefits of Ksh 1 mmillion per year which overburdens the funds.
NHIF is expected to grow further since it will compulsory for all adults to join.
