The comprehensive medical insurance scheme for civil servants under the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) has been lauded for transforming the lives of government workers and their families.
Thika West Deputy County Commissioner (DCC) Tom Anjere said that the performance of civil servants has tremendously improved since they don’t stress over their health or that of their families since it is all catered for.
Anjere speaking at the Thika School for the blind on Monday during an NHIF sensitization workshop said that the scheme cannot be compared to the old days when all a civil servant would get while sick was a bed rest.
“We have come a long way, initially all we could get was a bed rest but now even our families are well taken care of as well as when you need medication abroad,” said Anjere.
“We have seen people with kidney problems and they are given very special attention, recently we had a chief who passed away and the bill was almost Kshs.4 million and we had to talk to the NHIF headquarters and we got the necessary assistance,” he explained.
He added that there are some facilities which are giving very good quality of service and they have also updated their records and even without the NHIF card they can find your records and still offer you service.
Anjere highlighted that there still some challenges that needs to be addressed for instance when you go to a hospital which is not among the ones you have registered under it becomes difficult to be attended to and at times you have an emergency.
“You cannot choose where sickness gets to you, there are times when you or your family is forced to go to a facility outside your area and you face a lot of hurdles,” said Anjere.
Union of Kenya Civil Servants (UKCS) national chairman John Nzau said that they will ensure that the scheme which is aimed at ensuring a healthy working force is continuously improved to address the changing needs of civil servants.
Michael Njau the NHIF Thika branch manager said that members are not enjoying full benefits of the cover due to lack of awareness of the available services and covers.
Njau noted that this is the reason they are holding sensitization workshops so that members can enjoy maximum benefits which will lead to a healthy working nation.