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Health financing reform in Kenya- assessing the social health insurance proposal


Guy Carrin
Chris James
Michael Adelhardt
Ole Doetinchem
Peter Eriki
Mohammed Hassan
Henri van den Hombergh
Joses Kirigia
Burkard Koemm
Rolf Korte
Rudiger Krech
Cristopher Lankers
Jan van Lente
Tom Maina
Katherine Malonza
Inke Mathauer
Tom Mboya Okeyo
Stephen Muchiri
Zipora Mumani
Benjamin Nganda
James Nyikal
Joyce Onsongo
Chris Rakuom
Bernd Schramm
Xenia Scheil-Adlung
Friedeger Stierle
Dan Whitaker
Manfred Zipperer

Abstract

Kenya has had a history of health financing policy changes since its   independence in 1963. Recently, significant preparatory work was done on a new Social Health Insurance Law that, if accepted, would lead to universal health coverage in Kenya after a tr&nsition period. Questions of economic  feasibility and political acceptability continue to be discussed, with   stakeholders voicing concerns on design features of the new proposal   submitted to the  Kenyan parliament in 2004. For economic, social, political and organisational reasons a transition period will be  necessary, which is likely to last more than a decade. However, important objectives such as access to health care  and avoiding impoverishment due to direct health care payments should be recognised from the start so that  steady progress towards effective universal coverage can be planned and achieved.

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eISSN: 2078-5135
print ISSN: 0256-9574