HEALTH: SHA To Spy On Money Transfers, KRA data For Premium Payments
The Social Health Authority (SHA) has gained access to Kenyans’ mobile money transactions, Kenya Power payments, and Kenya Revenue Authority records, among other databases.
This is in an effort to catch those who are paying minimal rates but have the ability to pay more.
The move focuses on self-employed Kenyans, whose premiums are calculated by the information they provide through the Means Testing Tool.
According to the Ministry of Health, many people have misrepresented their financial situation by claiming to be landless or living in mud huts in order to pay reduced insurance payments.
SHA has been granted access to mobile money, KRA, NTSA & other records to push self-employed Kenyans into higher health premiums.
— Moe (@moneyacademyKE) February 19, 2025
Dr Deborah Mlongo, Cabinet Secretary for Health, stated that integrating SHA into several government databases will ensure equal contributions.
It will also increase the average monthly premiums paid by self-employed Kenyans to KSh880, nearly tripling the Sh300 minimum pledged during the 2022 election campaigns.
SHA has also been linked to databases from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) and the Immigration Department in order to detect automobile and motorcycle owners, as well as frequent flyers, who claim to be poor.
SHA has also received access to the Kenya Agricultural Management and Information System (KIAMIS), a computerized farmer registration system that, last year, registered all Kenyan farmers and their assets.
“We have a new algorithm, which is under development, and it will rely more on data triangulation from other existing databases in government agencies for improvement of the accuracy of means testing,” CS Mlongo said on Monday.
SHA has been granted access to mobile money, KRA, NTSA & other records to push self-employed Kenyans into higher health premiums.
— Moe (@moneyacademyKE) February 19, 2025
She stated that the SHA systems have also been linked to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), Hustlers Fund, Insurance Regulatory Authority, Registrar of Companies, and Communications Authority for mobile phone data.
The means testing tool is an online questionnaire that self-employed and unemployed SHA members complete to indicate what they own and what they do for a living.
The tool then utilizes an algorithm to calculate their annual revenue, from which they pay 2.7%.
The minimum monthly payment is Sh300. Those classified as extremely poor (indigent), which currently number around 1.5 million people, pay nothing but can still get health care.
Mlongo stated that Kenyans in the informal sector (self-employed and unemployed) pay an average of Sh560 per month.
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She stated that the new algorithm will increase the average monthly premium for Kenyans in the informal sector to Sh880.
“Previously, people would cheat the system, and this has had great impacts in terms of our average,” she said.
“Our average currently is at Sh560 and yet we need Sh880 average from the means testing for the [SHA] system to be sustainable.”
Deputy President Kindiki directed SHA to apply the new algorithm by February 28.
HEALTH: SHA To Spy On Money Transfers, KRA data For Premium Payments
