Foreigners to be compelled to buy local health cover

Regardless of the length of their stay, all visitors to Kenya will be required to purchase local health insurance coverage. Generating a new source of revenue for the insurance business, from the more than 1.5 million foreign visitors who come to the country every year.
All international visitors to Kenya will now be required to carry travel health insurance, according to a proposal made by the National Assembly’s health committee. Which is evaluating the Social Health Insurance Bill, 2023.
“A person who is a non-Kenyan and intends to enter the territory of Kenya for a period of less than twelve months shall be required to be in possession of a travel health insurance cover designated by the Cabinet Secretary for Health,” the committee says in the report tabled in the House last week.
The organization that will take the place of the National Health Insurance Fund, is expected to benefit from the Bill that Parliament is scheduled to approve this week.
One of the largest gainers from the new amendment, along with any other authorized private insurance companies, will be the public health insurer.
Prior to the official launch of universal health coverage (UHC) by President William Ruto in the coming weeks, the newest effort to bolster the financial strength of the new NHIF is the plan to require foreigners to purchase travel health insurance coverage.
The action intended to guarantee that visitors are insured for situations like pandemics will greatly enhance the Social Health Insurance Fund’s cash flows and is anticipated to give Kenya’s insurance sector a new source of income.
The proposal departs from a previous provision of the Bill, that intended to make membership mandatory only for visitors who stayed in the nation for more than a year.
When traveling outside of one’s own country, travel health insurance offers protection in the event of illness or injury.
If implemented, Kenya will follow nations like those in the Schengen region that require all visitors to sign up for a national health insurance plan.
Visitors without travel health insurance are refused admission into Schengen nations like France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Croatia, and Denmark.
The consequences for not enlisting and making contributions to the national health insurance fund are not specified in the Bill. The majority of the 1.48 million visitors to Kenya last year were tourists.
The new insurance program will cover the cost of treating chronic illnesses in addition to paying debts.
Robert Pukose, the Endebess MP and chair of the National Assembly’s health committee, said that the Cabinet Secretary might not necessarily require all travelers to purchase insurance from the organization that will take the place of the current NHIF, but rather from a private insurer that is recognized in Kenya.
“This requirement has not been there before and now we are making it compulsory like it happens when you go to other countries,” Mr Pukose said in a phone interview.
One of the 4 State-sanctioned health bills that have been authorized by the parliamentary health committee and are anticipated to be ratified by the House this month before being signed into law by President William Ruto is the Social Health Insurance Bill, 2023.
The other 3 are the Facility Improvement Financing Bill, 2023, the Primary Healthcare Bill, 2023, and the Digital Health Bill, 2023.
Mr. Pukose expressed his confidence in Parliament’s ability to enact all social health insurance-related bills this week.
“The 4 Bills will be passed by Parliament between Wednesday and Thursday and we expect that President Ruto will sign them into law this week,” Mr Pukose said.
Foreigners’ mandatory contributions, along with those of all Kenyans eighteen years of age and older, will protect the yet-to-be-created Fund from the same kind of financial difficulty that the NHIF has been experiencing.
All Kenyan adults will be required to join and contribute to the new social health fund if the Bills are passed, and those without documentation of their most recent contributions will be denied access to government services.
Despite increased member contributions and a rise in claims, the NHIF has been having trouble paying hospitals due to fraud that costs it billions of shillings annually.
For the fiscal year that concluded in June 2022, it received KSh80.43 billion in premiums, while KSh71.34 billion was spent on claims. Hospitals began turning away NHIF-covered patients in May of this year because there were at least KSh12 billion in outstanding claims.
According to the hospitals, the arrears have been building up since last year, which prompted their decision to try to get paid by the NHIF.
The new insurance program will pay for the treatment of chronic conditions like cancer and kidney dialysis in addition to covering health expenses for all Kenyan adults, setting the groundwork for greater financing requirements.
As Dr. Ruto continues the work of his predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta, in ensuring the roll-out of universal healthcare, the Bills are the most recent amendments to the NHIF Act.
On December 21, 2021, the Parliament revised the NHIF Act (1998), which was then approved and signed into law on January 10, 2022.
Rising claims have been a problem for the insurance sector and continue to jeopardize their financial stability. According to the most recent information available from the insurance industry’s regulating body, the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA), claims paid grew by 19.6% to KSh20.15 billion in the first 3 months of this year compared to KSh16.85 billion paid previously.
The increase in premiums collected, at 15.9%, to KSh62.52 billion, was slower than the increase of claims paid out.