The employees have threatened industrial action should the county government go ahead and forcefully enroll them into the NHIF scheme.
According to the union, the Sh737 million NHIF proposal will reduce benefits the staff have previously been enjoying yet it is costly compared to the AAR cover.
Further, the scheme will only cover 4,897 workers compared to about 12,000 staff that were under AAR insurance in the lapsed Sh850 million annual cover.
City Hall staff have rejected a plan by the county government to engage the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to provide medical cover, citing reduced benefits.
The employees, through the Kenya County Government Workers Union, said the county administration plans to enroll them into NHIF scheme after the lapse of the AAR Kenya medical scheme last month, without addressing their concerns.
The employees have threatened industrial action should the county government go ahead and forcefully enroll them into the NHIF scheme.
According to the union, the Sh737 million NHIF proposal will reduce benefits the staff have previously been enjoying yet it is costly compared to the AAR cover.
Further, the scheme will only cover 4,897 workers compared to about 12,000 staff that were under AAR insurance in the lapsed Sh850 million annual cover.
Union officials said they raised concerns about the new scheme through a June 8, 2021 letter to the acting county secretary Jairus Musumba highlighting several shortcomings in the NHIF scheme. However, no response was received from City Hall.
The county would go ahead and advertise for open tendering of the medical scheme in the dailies on July 1, 2021, with “utter disregard of the workers’ concerns”.
“The union is perturbed by the recent developments in which there are machinations by a few individuals to forcefully enroll Nairobi County staff into NHIF medical scheme without addressing all the pertinent issues raised by the union,” said the staff secretary Festus Ngari.
“We condemn this convoluted scheme being played by these individuals who are out to swindle public money and not for the welfare of Nairobi County workers. We wish to distance ourselves from this medical scheme and urge that the open tendering continues and the best provider who will give value for money be selected,” he added.
Mr Ngari claimed that the NHIF scheme excludes cover for pandemics something that was being covered by the previous cover within the chronic ailments limit.
There is also the reduction of group life cover of Sh850,000 received by the lowest ranked member in the event the member passes on, to Sh700,000.
Also, staff between job groups A and K enjoyed unlimited outpatient services but this has now been capped at Sh100,000 with limitation to the facilities that they can visit.
“The NHIF scheme does not give value for money and reeks of grand corruption and impunity as their quote is not objective but is done with the county’s budget in mind. NHIF being a government institution, it was our expectation that they would provide the best services with value for money,” said Mr Ngari.
