The Ministry of Health has initiated the process of restructuring the National Health Insurance Fund(NHIF) to the National Social Health Insurance Fund(NSHIF).

Health CS Susan Wafula on Wednesday met NHIF CEO Peter Kamunyo, board chairperson Michael Kamau and FKE CEO Jacqueline Mugo to start the process of changing the fund as had been hinted by the ministry last month.

The CS in February disclosed that there were plans to change the name from NHIF to NSHIF saying the change has been necessitated by the need to focus on primary and preventive healthcare.

“We have the one for elderly, for orphaned children, we have Linda Mama, we have Edu Afya; so what we are going to do with the NSHIF is we want to bring these funds together so that we shall no longer have them in silos,” she said.

The stakeholders highlighted the plans and strategies for restructuring NHIF to NSHIF during the meeting which will include expanding the number of services covered and the network of healthcare providers.

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The change seeks to ensure it benefits Kenyans in accessing quality and affordable healthcare and drives the attainment of the Universal Health Coverage agenda.

The importance of public education and awareness-raising campaigns to ensure that Kenyans understand the benefits of the new NSHIF was also discussed in the meeting.

Additionally, measures to ensure that employers and employees are adequately represented in the new NSHIF governance structure were also suggested.

The CS has also emphasized the government's determination to achieve Universal Health Care(UHC) and reiterated the importance of collaboration between the public and private sectors in achieving the goal.

The CS noted that there currently exist several schemes that take care of different cohorts of people, adding that there is a need to consolidate them into one as one big fund.

The CS has estimated that once put together, the various schemes will give close to Kes12.6 billion.

“With this Sh12.6 billion we are now doing the math and see how much more the government should add so that each and every Kenyan can be able to access healthcare down there,” she said.

The ministry expects to raise additional funds for the health scheme through the tobacco control fund and from a fraction of the betting fund.