MWAURA: Rutocare a game changer for hustler families
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore eNo one will be turned away, everyone will be treated before billing no one will be denied care if they lack money, even for cancer and grave diseases.
In the last couple of days, something monumental has happened to our country. There has been a great overhaul of the architecture of our healthcare system that culminated to the theme of Mashujaa Day celebrations being about Universal Healthcare.
This is one pillar out of the five under the Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda, as enshrined in THE PLAN. Many Kenyans will now be able
to access healthcare for free at health centers, and dispensaries in their neighbourhoods. The reorientation of our primary medical care architecture to cover all essential services namely, preventive, promotive, curative, palliative to rehabilitative — makes every Kenyan able to have comprehensive quality care with minimal financial burden.
The goal is to enable our healthcare systems in our hospitals to be transformed, to promote health-related innovations, to ensure the inclusion of many hustlers who have been unable to access them.
This will also ensure that there is an equitable distribution of health resources such as doctors, nurses, equipment, medicine, etc, across the country. Many Kenyans will be able to do their daily hustlers with minimal sickness so that they can perform better for them to earn more, and for the country to grow faster and better.
The shift from curative, to preventive and promotive healthcare is a game changer since as it is always said, prevention is better than cure. Both the national and county governments have joined hands in enrolling over 100,000 Community Health Volunteers, to a more formal role as Community Health Promoters, so that each one of them will be in charge of 100 homes in a given neighbourhood.
The real aim is to ensure that ailments and conditions are first prevented through the promotion of healthy practices, hence, lifestyles. In addition, over 100,000 Hustlers who have been volunteering as CHVs have now been employed, each with a nice smartphone and some basic medical equipment to be in charge of the 100 homes.
They will help to monitor our health through basic health promotion tips and check-ups, to help us to avoid getting sick, and ending up in hospital, thus paying a lot of money.
To enable this, outcome, four enabling pieces of legislation were signed into law by the President William Ruto at State House, Nairobi, after a marathon debate in both houses of Parliament. The bills have created three funds including one that shall take care of chronic illnesses.
The Primary Health Care Act, 2023, the Digital Health Act, 2023, the Facility Improvement Financing Act, 2023, and the Social Health Insurance Act, 202.3 seek to reconstruct the basis of our healthcare, in order to achieve the much-needed revolution in our healthcare system ever since we became independent.
For example, the primary healthcare act aims at ensuring that basic health is well structured and has the government’s intervention. The health records have been a problem as they aren’t synchronised. Some of them will be available in different hospitals depending on where one goes. This now means that with the act in place, there will be harmonisation of procedures to secure the records that can now be accessed digitally, even if one moves from one hospital to another. The days of when one had to travel up and down with documents such as X-ray scans and prescriptions will be long gone since at the touch of a button, any doctor will be able to access them at any point or location in order to help the patient. Moreover, the Facilities Improvement
Act will help many hospitals to maintain and upgrade their buildings, and equipment when they wear out. This is because of the fact that many public hospitals are in a sorry state.
The Social Health Insurance act is very important to help many Kenyans who cannot afford to pay for their medication. This is an area that has really affected many families rendering them destitute, due to huge medical bills that they cannot afford.
Many families have had to conduct harambees for them to get their dear ones out of the country. For example, a recent story of an ailing pastor who couldn’t afford treatment that required more than Sh2 million captured the attention of many Kenyans, when he and his helper were denied entry into India, despite having valid visas.
A real game changer in these health reforms is that the minimum monthly NHIF payment has been reduced from 500 to 300! and those to be covered per family have been increased from four to six people! This means that Anyango who earns about the same amount a day as Mama Fua, can now afford to pay for her medication if she saves 10 or 20 bob per day.
The majority of hustlers are at this level. If you have an accident, you will now be treated first before you are asked to pay. Also if your require treatment as an emergency, the law now provides that you first be treated before you pay since your life is more important than money.
The government is thus calling upon the cooperation of all stakeholders and Kenyans in general to help these reforms to take off and be institutionalised.
In the end, the cost of healthcare will significantly come down once the public component leads to a reduction in the demand for private hospital facilities.t dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.