Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has called on African countries to strengthen domestic financing for healthcare to accelerate Universal Health Coverage and reduce the cost burden on households.
Duale said sustainable financing, supported by technology and strong political leadership, is needed to ensure people can access healthcare without being pushed into financial hardship.
He spoke during a high-level ministerial dialogue on health financing at the 76th session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for Africa, which brought together African health ministers to examine sustainable approaches to financing healthcare and accelerating Universal Health Coverage across the continent.
Duale highlighted Kenya’s health financing reforms, including the transition from NHIF to SHA.
According to Duale, before the reforms health insurance covered about a quarter of the population, forcing many households to pay for medical treatment directly with out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure at the time estimated at 1.2 billion US dollars annually.
Duale noted that more than 32.3 million people are now registered under SHA, representing about 55 per cent of Kenya’s population.
He added that the Government has committed more than 210 million US dollars to primary healthcare services at community and facility levels.
Duale says the funding has supported more than 20 million outpatient visits involving 15 million people, over 1.2 million safe deliveries and about 500,000 surgical procedures.
“Through the Emergency, Chronic and Critical Illness Fund, more than 50,000 cancer patients and nearly 21,000 people requiring dialysis have also received support.”
Duale said digitisation was further improving transparency and efficiency, with 6,424 of the country’s 6,727 health facilities, representing more than 95 per cent, now digitised.
