We Will Ensure NHIF Fee is Lowered, Ruto Promises

Speaking a few days after NHIF board announced new rates, Ruto said the charges should be affordable to allow Kenyans to pay and access medication in hospitals.

Ruto added that by June 2015, NHIF cards will cater for both in-patient and out-patient in hospitals and called upon all Kenyans to join the program and access medical services at a lower cost.

He said that the government will make sure that all counties have two referral hospitals to make healthcare available to locals, who would otherwise travel all the way to the Kenyatta National Hospital.

Ruto was speaking during the ordination of Bishop Peter Miriti as the Archbishop of Voice and Salvation Ministries.

NHIF gazette new premier rates that will see formal sectors workers in Kenya paying higher contributions with effects from April 1, 2015.

According to a legal notice dated February 6, the contributions will ascent in a graduated structure that will see high-income earners deductions rise by up to 431 per cent.

Individuals earning Sh5,999 and below will contribute Sh150 while those earning Sh100,000 and above will pay the highest amount at Sh1,700.

The self-employed, who have been making monthly contributions of Sh160, will start paying Sh500.