This UHC initiative has been made possible by a generous Droomfonds grant by the Nationale Postcode Loterij, for a collaboration between Amref and PharmAccess.
Meet Laura Basura
Laura, as one of the 65,000 beneficiaries of this UHC initiative, is now connected to healthcare financing, quality care and lifestyle support - directly through her mobile phone.
Like many in Kakamega, Laura’s family used to live without health insurance. Out-of-pocket health costs have led her to postpone or skip doctor visits entirely.
Find out what impact health insurance has on her health, finances and future.
1. Mind the Gap
Kenya has made important steps in terms of UHC. However, in this transition period, some of the most vulnerable groups of the population are suffering most.
Follow Chantelle Petit, a Kenyan influencer and maternal health advocate, who visits Kakamega to better understand the role of technology to improve access to care for everyone.
Through mobile health wallet and platform M-TIBA, women and their families receive health insurance. Meanwhile, data is gathered on their healthcare service utilization and diagnoses.
2. Building awareness in the community
As trusted members of the community, Community Health Workers (CHW’s) have been deployed to raise awareness on health-related topics, gather data and to encourage people to visit health facilities.
The CHW’s have also promoted the value of insurance and helped enrolling people through their mobile phones, into the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
3. Quality builds Trust
People will only visit health facilities and buy into the concept of health insurance, when they receive quality care.
Quality is key to building trust, but also, a critical component of improving health outcomes for the community. That is why SafeCare, PharmAccess’ benchmarking and quality improvement methodology has been an essential part of the initiative.
Through a step-wise approach and participation of all staff, facilities can improve quality of services and provide better care to their communities.
4. Future Forward
On all levels of the system, valuable data is gathered and displayed on dashboards. The data enables decision-makers to better prioritize the allocation of health funds and respond immediately to potential health threats.
In this final episode, Chantelle Petit visits Dr. Makokha, former county secretary in Kakamega, and Dr. Osoro, manager at the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to discuss the lasting changes of the UHC initiative on a regional as well as on a national level.