Raila Roots for Compulsory Health Insurance Scheme in the Wake of COVID-19 Pandemic

ODM leader Raila Odinga has urged the government to invest in a compulsory health insurance scheme in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through a statement on Sunday, Odinga said the pandemic has exposed the failures and challenges facing the country’s healthcare system, adding that lessons need to be picked for improvement.

“If we are to learn any lesson from this pandemic, let it be that going forward we have to do things differently with regard to the health and well-being of our people,” Odinga stated.

Odinga argued that the insurance scheme should cover all people including the employed, unemployed, and self-employed as well as farmers, while the government should pay for the extremely poor.

“The most urgent need facing the country today is how to ensure universal access to quality, affordable and reliable healthcare, both preventive and curative. From primary school days, we were told that prevention is better than cure,” he added.

For the scheme to be effective and efficient, Odinga proposed that Kenyans should contribute to and receive health coverage from the insurance scheme based on the principle of “from each according to his/her ability and to each according to his/her need.”

Odinga regretted that the COVID-19 pandemic caught the country off-guard with inadequate preventive health services while the curative services were alike wanting with the best reserved for the elite who can pay for it.

“Even the elite-driven approach has been tested and found below expectation. There are only so many hospitals and so many beds even for those with money,” he said.

Odinga stressed that the insurance fund would be critical as citizens would be guaranteed of accessing curative services without the devastating effects of out-of-pocket expenses.

“Coronavirus has reminded us of things we knew but ignored,” he concluded.