Prioritise healthcare insurance for workers to ease taxpayers’ burden
A health centre. The State should seeks ways of reducing the out of pocket expenditure going towards healthcare of lowly paid workers. PHOTO | FILE
This Labour Day celebration was not different from the past years. Workers’ representatives and government officials world over issued demands and promises on the plights of workers and the way forward.
Amongst many contentious issues like raising the minimum wage, addressing workplace environments and improving working conditions, we must not forget to talk about the plight of workers’ health needs and provisions to cater for the same.
As is evidenced in other countries, the resources expended in safeguarding and taking care of citizens’ health are rising globally.
According to World Bank data on healthcare expenditure per capita, Kenya’s figures by comparison to nations with healthier populations are way low at just about 45 dollars per capita for 2013 data.
While this is a small increase from previous years (35 dollars in 2011 and 42 dollars in 2012), it is shy of nations with established health systems. This low health expenditure per capita figure is replicated in many other African nations.
Our employment channels, both formal and informal reserve less for healthcare creating a cause for worry.
In particular informal sector workers who make slightly above three quarters of Kenyan jobs according to United Nations’ Economic Commission for Africa, do not directly contribute to this “health basket”.
Due to our fewer formally employed population and lower gross domestic products (GDPs), the implications are felt more by the tax payers.
Employed workers are thus burdened to shoulder the weight of the entire country’s citizens depending on state-subsidised healthcare.
By virtue of their nature of work and habitations, the jua kali sector workers and their families are also the most at risk to occupational and environmental health hazards; putting them on the frontline of consuming public healthcare since many are not in any formal health insurance pool.
However, a shifting epidemiology landscape in Africa means that in many such households, out of pocket health expenditure will outstrip budgets for food, school fees etc.
The World Health Organisation data indicate that while HIV/Aids is still a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, cancer at eight per cent of envisaged mortalities is rising closely attended by cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
The last two in particular are associated with relatively higher cost of care.
This year therefore perhaps in addition to the minimum wage debate we should also strive to seek ways in which we can work towards reducing the amount of workers money going to unnecessary healthcare expenditure.
Secondly and more importantly perhaps is to reinvigorate efforts to see how as many as possible of informal jobholders can get onboard the health insurance vehicle.
As most jua kali workers are not in collective groups around which such ideas can be coalesced, this is not possible without public education and government support.
A cultural shift is needed to itemise a “health” expenditure on our budgets amongst those without employers to deduct it from the salary.
For workers representatives, it is time they raised their voices on the government’s largesse of their hard-worked-for-money. Perhaps the state could better utilise these funds in meeting the workers and their families’ healthcare needs.
