Uhuru’s Edu Afya Medical Program to Benefit Students
The Edu Afya medical program has been benefiting students since it was established three years ago.
The Head of State His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta launched the Sh. 4.05 billion NHIF comprehensive medical cover in 2018 for students in public secondary schools.
The government pays Sh. 1,350 per student through the Edu Afya programme and this is intended to cover around three million students in public secondary schools in order to fulfil the promised Big Four Agenda.
The Big Four Agenda includes the provision of affordable medical care to students.
The government elected to launch the Edu Afya package in order to allow students to access quality health services and eliminate the financial stress medical fees had on parents and guardians.
Following this, the government signed an agreement with the NHIF of providing medical insurance to all students who attend public secondary schools throughout the duration of their studies.
Some students who become critically ill might not have been able to afford treatment due to the high cost of medical attention. Fortunately, the inception of the government’s Edu Afya package solved this conundrum.
Any student who attends a public secondary school and is registered with the NHIF via the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) database.
NHIF has since improved system integration to ensure registration (in bulk) and exit of registered students to ensure that there is seamless access to services.
Eligible students now have access to services after being registered in the NEMIS database at their school.
Students have been benefitting from both inpatient and outpatient benefit packages. This comprises around 80% of the total medical claims for the scheme with major surgery accounting for 9% of the total utilization in the current year.
Students who are members of the scheme both local and abroad enjoy comprehensive outpatient and inpatient medical treatment.
Medical coverage of the Edu Afya medical scheme covers both road and air evacuation, dental, optical and specialized services, group personal accident, group life and coverage on last expense.
However, there needs to be the creation of more awareness campaigns among both teachers, parents and students to ensure that they are fully aware of what the Edu Afya package entails.
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