By The Peak
President William Ruto has signed into law the Universal Health Care Bill (UHC) at State House Nairobi hours after arriving from China.
Speaking during the signing ceremony attended by top government leaders and healthcare partners, Dr Ruto said Kenyans have collectively aspired for a quality, affordable and accessible healthcare system since independence.
He said the UHC law together with various policies and strategies including the Community Health Policy and Primary Healthcare Financing Strategies will lay the foundation for the biggest change in the country’s healthcare system.
The Head of State said implementation of the UHC law will be a great achievement for the Kenya Kwanza government manifesto because he made the commitment during campaigns.
He said there are only 26 percent of Kenyans with healthcare insurance and that is why sick people are remaining at home because they cannot afford out-of-pocket costs.
Dr Ruto said the Primary Healthcare Fund will finance services from health facilities at levels one to three while the Social Health Insurance Fund will take care of services at levels four to six facilities.
“The Emergency, Chronic and Critical Illness Fund will fund emergencies and chronic illness costs once the social health insurance is depleted making sure that no Kenyan is denied emergency medical treatment as captured in the constitution,” said Dr Ruto.
He said recently he flagged off kits that over 100,000 community health volunteers will use in all 47 counties after their unveiling tomorrow during Mashujaa Day Celebrations.
He noted that each community health volunteer will be responsible for 100 households and the national and county governments will share the responsibility of their stipends.
