National Health Insurance Fund

y the principal members and their dependants. The main objective for the establishment of the Fund was to administer the scheme and to formulate and promulgate policies for sound administration of the scheme. However, the day to day operations of the Fund are executed by the Director General on behalf of the Board of Directors. Generally, employers and employees in the public sector are obliged by the Law to register themselves and contribute to the Fund a total of six percent of employee’s salary,equally shared between the employer and the employee, except uniformed service men1 whose contribution is 6.25% and where paid by Government.The Fund covers members,their spouses and up to four children and/or dependants. The Membership size of the Fund has increased from 332,650 in June 2009 to 373,326 by June 2010, an increase equivalent to 12.2%.The beneficiaries have been increasing gradually from 1,830,375 in June 2009 to 1,971,251 as of 30th June 2010, equivalent to an increase of 7.7%. Extension of membership coverage has been made possible through the amendments of the NHIF Act,which extended the coverage to include all public servants2 instead of the previous Central Government employees . The following groups were taken on board namely public servants, councilors, and members of the Police force, Prisons, Immigrations, Fire and Rescue as well as other groups of persons. As the scope of membership and beneficiaries increases, the Scheme is expected to ultimately assume its national role as the major universal social health insurance provider. The Fund’s benefits package comprising of Registration and Consultation Fees, Outpatient Services, Medicines, Diagnostic Tests, Inpatient Services, Surgical Services, Physiotherapy and Optical Services. An important inclusion and enhancement in the package was the introduction of the Retirees benefits for the rest of their lives, a great stride in the Scheme’s milestones.The services are provided to beneficiaries through the Fund’s accredited health facilities which include Government, Faith Based and Private facilities that are located throughout the country. During the first two years of operations, the scheme encountered various challenges which hindered its smooth operation.In order to tackle the challenges,the focus was mainly on awareness creation to key stakeholders to ensure that they understand the Scheme and packages offered by NHIF. Now than ever before, stakeholders have started to understand the concept of social health insurance which has lead to increased applications of the excluded groups requesting to join the Fund.This is reflected by the increase of the membership base from 164,708 in 2001/02 to 373,326 observed by June 2010, accounting to an average annual growth rate of 14.1%.