More than 5,000 people living with severe disabilities and the elderly in Machakos County have been registered to benefit from NHIF.
Machakos NHIF official Joseph Mwita said the Fund targets to register 6,000 individuals by end of this week.
Mwita said those registered in the program will start benefiting from free comprehensive in-patient and outpatient medical services from public hospitals within the county in the next three weeks.
“We are conducting the exercise to cover old people and those living with severe disabilities so that whenever they fall sick, they are able to get free medication as the government clear their hospital bills automatically for life time,” said Mwita.
He said the parastatal had concluded the exercise in all the sub counties apart from Yatta which it intends to visit within the week for the same exercise.
Mwita said majority of the elderly persons from the county were poor and sick but cannot afford medication because it's very expensive.
He said there are several cases where families sell their land alongside other property to raise funds towards settling hospital bills for their relatives, especially the elderly and those with disabilities.
Mwita said several residents were left with small pieces of land to sell hence the benefit of the initiative.
He was speaking in Athi River town on Saturday.