The importance of health insurance is only felt when a family or a community is faced with the financial burden of paying directly from the pockets as the saying goes, your health is indeed your wealth.
How one will choose to ensure a car and not insure their family’s health is baffling having in mind the many chronic diseases that require exorbitant financing. The frustration that comes with the need to seek proper medical care to save a loved one clearly shows the need for every Kenyan to secure health coverage.
Healthcare is not affordable to a majority of Kenyans and has been known to drive most families into bankruptcy, despite this, only one in five Kenyans enjoy a medical cover according to the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey (KIHBS) data 2015/2016.
In a country with over 45 million people, more than 36 million Kenyans cannot afford quality healthcare despite the availability of friendly and tailor-made medical covers from Insurance companies such as Kenyan Alliance.
The lack of health insurance means that getting sick or injured could mean going bankrupt, going without the needed care, or even dying needlessly. The cost of medical services is unaffordable, once one is admitted to a hospital; there are numerous costs, from consultation fee, diagnostic test fees, cost of prescribed drugs amongst other procedures that the Doctor may dim fit.
Paying off these expenses will logically drain one’s savings and that can easily be avoided if one had enrolled for health insurance.
Unfortunately, the importance of human life in our health facilities is mostly given importance depending on the depths of one’s pockets. The depth of any pocket is likely to change when a chronic illness hits and the realization that life is dearer than money hits, that money is likely not to be there then and that is exactly why you need health insurance.
Uninsured people receive less medical care as Doctors and caregivers are always worried one might not afford. A doctor is likely to prescribe generic drugs simply because they are concerned about the cost one will incur in purchasing the original unlike the case of an insured patient.
An insured patient is able to get better preventive care as the financial burden is not really a concern for them, unlike a patient who has to foot medical bills directly from their pocket.
A patient without health insurance coverage is unlikely to receive prompt care as the bill payment transaction takes place before every stage of care yet we all know that while saving a life, every minute does count!
Investing in a great healthcare plan will ensure the services of a good hospital or a doctor is within reach.
There is a section of Kenyans that will argue Government hospitals are cheaper but what of the facilities? The long queues and absentee Doctors that is likely to send you home unattended?
Health covers are not for the rich, they are for every human being, young or aged, it is said information is power, reach out to Kenyan Alliance Insurance to get a health cover for you and your loved ones today.