Thursday, 10 July 2014

Revising The Tool for Identifying The Poor For National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) in Kenya

Fellow's Name: Angela Oloo Akumu

Fellows Track: Health Economics 
 
In Kenya, National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) has been striving to reach and register members from both the formal and informal sectors. Given the high poverty rates of 46 percent, majority of Kenyans would not be in a position to pay the monthly contributions. Since the year 2003 there has been need for NHIF to identify the poor because it wants to increase its insurance coverage. There have been further calls for transforming NHIF to NSHIF where identification of the poor would be vital. NHIF through the newly created Sponsored Programmes  division has managed to develop and pilot a tool to identify indigents. However, one of the key reccommendations from the pilot was that the tool needs to be modified. The goal of this project was to increase NHIF’s insurance level of coverage. The project's methodology and approach included: review of other tools for identifying the poor; review of methods of identification that captured poverty dynamics and vulnerability; testing  the tool; sensitizing stakeholders on the importance and use of the tool and disseminating the report.

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