The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) has published regulations that will allow men to get medical cover for multiple wives, if Parliament approves the proposed law, marking a departure from medical insurance norms.
The regulations have a clause providing medical coverage to polygamous families on condition the male member pays an extra Sh500 for the additional wives.
This is a departure from the current NHIF rules that cover one spouse and a maximum five children.
Most private insurance firms recognise the principal member, one registered spouse and up to four children for medical covers, especially those backed by employers.
Members with two wives are often forced to have another cover for the second wife who is listed as the principal member.
The NHIF’s move to recognise multiple wives comes more than eight years after former President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law a marriage Bill legalising polygamy.
It brought civil law, where a man was only allowed one wife, into line with customary law, allowing men to have more wives without consulting existing spouses.
“Where a standard contributor includes more than one spouse as a beneficiary, the contributor shall remit an additional contribution to the Fund,” says a new clause in the republished regulations.
“The rate of the additional contribution referred to in the sub-regulation shall be five hundred shillings in respect of each spouse.”
The NHIF is seeking community input on the new regulations ahead of parliamentary approval for the new rates and the clause backing members with multiple wives.
Almost 1.5 million Kenyans - or 10 percent of the married population - are in a polygamous marriage, according to data from the Kenya Population and Housing Census.
But women rights groups say this is a gross underestimate as most of these marriages are customary and not registered.
Many women are unaware they are even sharing a husband as he may keep them in separate homes without informing them.
Despite growing modernity and awareness of women’s rights, polygamy remains legal in most African nations and is prevalent across society, from farmers to senior politicians and top executives. In Kenya, church leaders have opposed the clause in the marriage law approving polygamy, insisting it undermines Christian principles of marriage and family.
The law also abolished the practice of unofficial traditional marriages which were never registered and could be ended without any legal divorce proceedings.
Eight years since the enactment of the marriage legislation, the Insurance Act is yet to be reviewed to reflect the change.
“The law as it is structured now allows for one wife, so currently our contracts read additional beneficiaries,” said Jubilee Holdings chief executive Julius Kipng’etich.
The NHIF is seeking from the revived law to have workers earning more than Sh100,000 per month pay more in monthly contributions, signalling a heavier financial strain on staff and employers.
The fund in republishing regulations, which were rejected by Parliament before the August 8 General Election, wants workers earning more than Sh100,000 pay 1.7 percent of their gross salary to the scheme.
The new premium is a shift from the present model where employees earning over Sh100,000 pay a fixed monthly contribution of Sh1,700 to the NHIF.
In August, the public health insurer dropped its bid to have top earners pay more after Parliament rejected the push to increase the monthly contributions.
Contributions of workers earning Sh200,000 will double to Sh3,400 if the regulations are adopted while the burden on those on Sh500,000 will increase five times to Sh8,500 monthly.
Employers who have not provided a superior private insurance cover will be expected to match the workers’ monthly contributions to the NHIF, a further hit to firms that are yet to recover from the coronavirus-induced slump that triggered job cuts, hiring freezes and business closures.
The additional payouts will add tens of billions of shillings to the coffers of the NHIF, which in the year to June raised Sh80.43 billion from workers — making it one of Kenya’s richest State-backed firms.
The fresh regulations are part of the new law that made it compulsory for all adult Kenyans to contribute to the NHIF.
The NHIF last reviewed its rates in April 2015 and is seeking to increase its income to boost coverage for diseases such as cancer and offer health insurance to all Kenyans.
It raised workers’ contributions from Sh320 to a graduated scale of between Sh500 and Sh1,700 per month based on monthly pay. The higher fees came with the introduction of outpatient cover for contributors and enhanced benefits for specialised treatment such as chemotherapy for cancer and kidney dialysis.
The new law is silent on whether the fund will enhance its benefits on the back of a near doubling of its annual collection.
But the fund is seeking additional resources to cater to the expected jump in new members, especially from the informal sector who pay Sh500 monthly.
