Employers to compensate staff in new NHIF changes

Employers are now walking on a tightrope after the National Assembly made changes to National Hospital Insurance Fund Act to protect employees.

Members of Parliament amended the NHIF Act of 1998 to compel employers to compensate their employees for paying their medical bills using their own money, due to suspension of the NHIF cover for non-remittance by the employer.

The NHIF Amendment Bill 2021 also requires employers to pay penalties for delayed or failure to send the NHIF contributions.

“That employer shall be liable to pay the costs incurred by the employee when seeking treatment from a contracted healthcare provider during the period when the contribution is due,” NHIF Amendment Bill 2021 reads.

NHIF normally suspends its medical services to employees whose employers have continuously failed to remit their contributions to the cover, making it hard for workers to seek medical health.

The new amendment now seeks to save many employees in the public sector where defaulting on NHIF contributions has been on the rise, especially in the public universities and county governments.

Kenyan legislatures have been busy trying to amed changes in the NHIF that has in recent past proved headache to most Kenyans.

These latest amendments, comes just one month after MPs passed a motion requiring all households in Kenya to make mandatory contribution of Ksh.500 as the state rolls out health cover for every Kenyan.

In a bill by the National Assembly Majority Leader Amos Kimunya, employers are required to make an equal contribution to the fund for their employees as the government moves towards attaining Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

MPs also approved heavy penalties for employers who fail to remit to the fund or deduct the same from their employees’ salaries.

As President Uhuru Kenyatta’s term draws to a close, Members of Parliament raced against time on Tuesday to streamline the much-hyped universal health care.

Through the NHIF amendment bill 2021, the lawmakers in tailored amendments made it mandatory for all adults to be contributors to the national health insurance fund.

“Contributions will be by all Kenyans from 18 years and above in both formal and informal sectors,” the bill reads in part.

“Employers are required to contribute an amount equal to that which they have remitted on behalf of their employees.”

The bill pegs a compulsory contribution of Ksh.6,000 for the self-employed with no option of voluntary contributions to the fund.