The government has said it will rename the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) to a suitable name amidst the ongoing reforms in the multi-billion state parastatal.
According to Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha, the state underwriter would be renamed to National Social Health Insurance Fund (NSHIF) in a bid to drive the universal health coverage (UHC).
“For us to drive this universal healthcare, we have to bring everybody on board. That is why we already have a team working and in the next few months, we are going to roll out NSHIF,” said Nakhumicha when she attended the inaugural Cancer Summit in Nairobi on Thursday, February 2, 2022.
This comes against the backdrop of ongoing reforms in the NHIF.
In October last year, President William Ruto said he is keen to see contribution scheme at the NHIF is changed to accommodate every Kenyan.
He said his administration would change the structure from individual contributory scheme to a house hold contributory model.
It would be the second time the government would have rebranded the parastatal after a year.
Years back, NHIF had been known as the National Hospital Insurance Fund until January 20, 2022 when the underwriter’s board chairperson Lewis Nguyai opted for renaming – the National Health Insurance Fund.
“This is now to broaden the scope of service delivery because it is not only hospitals that deliver health, but there are many healthcare providers as we are now going to call them in their contracts,” Nguyai said.
The new name aimed at including organisations that have renal dialysis centres, cancer care centres and diabetic care centres.
