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President William Ruto Tuesday dismissed concerns raised by the Auditor General over Sh100 billion in expenditure on the Social Health Authority (SHA), insisting that the government will only fund legitimate healthcare services and not fraudulent claims.
Speaking in Kakamega, Ruto assured Kenyans that SHA was designed to promote transparency and accountability in healthcare financing, replacing the now-defunct National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), which he said had been riddled with fraud.
“We want to resolve past issues of corruption. Nearly 40 percent of NHIF’s funds were lost to fake and fraudulent claims,” he revealed.
Ruto emphasized that under SHA, hospitals will only be paid for services rendered, eliminating arbitrary disbursements that had characterized NHIF. He clarified that the new system will operate on a fee-for-service model to protect contributors’ funds and prevent misuse.
“Every citizen treated at a facility will be accounted for in payments. We will not continue the practice of sending free money to hospitals without oversight, as was the case with NHIF,” he affirmed.
The President also took aim at critics of the SHA system, suggesting that those opposing it are individuals who previously benefited from corruption within NHIF and are resistant to a transparent process.
“The people complaining are those who have been stealing from us. They don’t want a technology-driven system because they want to continue their fraudulent activities,” he claimed.
Ruto reiterated that the government is committed to ensuring healthcare funds serve their intended purpose and that SHA will not be susceptible to the loopholes that plagued NHIF.
His remarks come amid growing scrutiny of the new health financing system, with stakeholders raising concerns about transparency and the financial future of hospitals that previously relied on NHIF disbursements
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