Prior to 2015, the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) was only offering Inpatient services to the members on a rebate system. This arrangement was still deficient in breadth for some crucial medical services required by its members, specifically, surgical care and specialized laboratory investigations. This meant that members were still incurring out-of-pocket expenditure to access advanced treatment.

NHIF enhanced the benefit packages to include illnesses, which were not previously covered. This meant that NHIF members, more so, informal sector members and members under the Health Insurance Subsidy Programme for the poor could access comprehensive healthcare without incurring out-of-pocket expenditure.

The benefits were reviewed as follows:

1. Inpatient services:

• Provided prior to 2015; daily rebate system with co-payments in cases of surgery, Maternity Services, consultation, bed charges, Nursing care
• New; Surgery, Oncology, Dialysis, Alcohol & Drug Abuse Rehabilitation

2. Outpatient services:

• Provided prior to 2015; None
• New; Dialysis, Dental, Optical, MRI, CT-Scan, Chemotherapy, Radiology, Kidney Transplant and Specialized Surgery

To enhance social protection, these benefits are all available to members from the informal sector and the subsidy programme who contribute KES 500 per month.