A section of teachers from Nyamira County have welcomed the revamped National Hospital Insurance Scheme, saying the new scheme will benefit them in many incidents compared to the initial project.
According to some of the teachers, the prevalence of home births played a major role in the country’s high maternal death rate, which has been rising in recent years.
Nancy Onyancha, a teacher at Gesiaga Secondary said the move by the government to review the scheme will to ensure accessible universal maternal healthcare services, and that will curb rising maternal deaths in the current age.
“We have seen maternal deaths rise and the new NHIF scheme will really give the patients the courage to attend any hospital they need,” she added.
Isaac Makori, another teacher from the same school said they are happy that one can go to any hospital around them and get the right medication.
“Medication has been made easy and am sure the death rates will reduce due to the affordability of the medication” he added.
The government insurer has for a long time come under pressure from health stakeholders who argued that despite enforcing new rates on contributors that saw its collection increase threefold from Sh800 million to Sh2.3 billion monthly, its members were not enjoying enhanced benefits.