CS Mbadi Says The Gov’t Won’t Abolition of SHA Despite Failures
Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi insisted on Wednesday that the government would not abolish the Social Health Authority (SHA), despite Kenyans’ outrage over healthcare access issues.
Speaking on Spice FM, the finance minister underlined that the difficulties encountered during the transition from the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) to SHA were insufficient to justify a complete reform of the new health insurance system.
CS Mbadi, while emphasizing his position on the issue, stated that the solution to the current crisis in the health sector was not to overhaul the entire system, but rather to rectify the flaws discovered during the implementation of the health program.
“Kenyans have been questioning why we have SHA and not NHIF, the latter was not working, Kenyans must understand that if a system is not working, we get a system that is working, it may have challenges from the beginning but that does not mean we get back to a system that does not work,” CS Mbadi stated.
The Treasury CS went on to say that it would be prudent to exercise patience on this matter, emphasizing that the government was striving to restore normalcy by resolving the problems.
Treasury CS John Mbadi addresses SHA challenges, states that NHIF was ineffective and therefore had to be changed
— The Kenya Times (@thekenyatimes) October 16, 2024
Photo: John Mbadi (Facebook) pic.twitter.com/fPuRsvz4XV
CS Mbadi went on to compare Kenyans to Lot’s wife, a biblical character who, according to the book of Genesis, became a pillar of salt after witnessing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah while her family fled.
“The problem with us is that if we attempt to get something to work then we have challenges, instead of correcting challenges and moving forward, we tend to go back,” CS Mbadi commented.
“Kenyans tend to think like Lot’s wife who was told not to look back but she looked back and remained at the same place. So we need to be looking forward. If SHA has challenges, we need to deal with these challenges,” the CS added.
Furthermore, the CS stated that the government intends to absorb the NHIF’s pending debts to public and private institutions.
He explained that repaying the debt was part of the solution to the problem in the health sector.
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“The bottom line is, this is a national institution, you can not run away from it, it takes liabilities and assets, so once SHA takes liabilities, it will have to pay for those liabilities,” Mbadi answered.
CS Mbadi’s move comes just hours after Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa announced the formation of a task group to guarantee that all Kenyans, especially cancer patients and those on dialysis, have access to crucial healthcare services.
“No Kenyan should be left behind when it comes to receiving the care they need,” CS Deborah announced.
Kenyans who want to register should dial *147# or visit http://afyayangu.co.ke. Barasa stated that registration was required to ensure that everyone had access to and could afford healthcare.
CS Mbadi Says The Gov’t Won’t Abolition of SHA Despite Failures
