Commissioner roota for post-retirement medical scheme

Murang’a, Thursday, June 8, 2023

KNA by Anita Omwenga

Murang’a County Commission (CC) Patrick Mukuria has urged the national government to finalise the actualisation of the proposed post-retirement medical scheme for civil servants. 

Speaking on Wednesday in a Murang’a hotel during a Monitoring and evaluation exercise on the provisions of the Comprehensive Medical Insurance Scheme for Civil Servants by NHIF, Mukuria said a post-retirement medical scheme will ensure civil servants lead a dignified life after they have retired from service.   

“Most retired civil servants do not have a medical insurance cover and end up using all their money to treat illnesses when they fall sick,” said Mukuria adding this will cause them to struggle financially in their lifetime.

The CC said that civil servants are ready and willing to make contributions to the scheme while they are still active members of the scheme to go towards their post-retirement medical scheme.

“If we can start saving early towards our post-retirement health scheme, it would go a long way because when we get to retirement age, we shall have secured ourselves with a medical insurance package that will cater for our medical bills,” he averred.

The CC further said that the exercise will utilise the feedback to address identified challenges and consider proposals and recommendations made by the civil servants to inform decision making for improved provision of the comprehensive scheme benefits during the coming financial year which starts next month on July 1.

“Feedback is important for continuous improvement because as much as the cover is efficient, we know that there are areas that need to be improved,” said Mukuria, adding that NHIF for the civil servant scheme has undergone continuous improvement since 2012 when it started.

One of the areas and challenges that the commissioner observed needed improvement included preauthorisation turnaround time to ensure that it takes a shortest amount of time for approval to be made when a member is accessing inpatient services.

The State department for Public Service jointly with National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and Union of Kenya Civil Servants (UKCS) will be carrying out the monitoring and evaluation exercise in all the 47 counties in a bid to improve the quality of medical services being offered to the civil servants in the country.

Courtesy ; K. N. A