Reforming the National Health Insurance Fund for better surgical care financing

Wanjau, Waruguru

doi:10.4314/aas.v16i1.1

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Public health interventions include, among others, "school closure, public gathering bans, and isolation and quarantine" (Gostin, 2007). Public health interventions are considered more simplistic, but they also have the singular ability to significantly diminish the quality of life, sometimes with dire outcomes (Walbert 2011) -in the case of impoverished communities, this can be access to basic services or even food. The timely implementation of public health interventions has often been accompanied by delays in reaching peak mortality; however, a "statistically significant inverse correlation between the duration of the interventions and total mortality (Cliff et al, 2009 p. 644) has been shown.…”

Section: Government Responses: Compounding Policy Errors and Exogenous Environmental Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

To Starve or to Catch Covid-19? Emergency Management of a Public Health Crisis and Impact on Economically Distressed Communities

Ibrahim¹,

Magu²,

Ibrahim³

2021

JSSW

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When the novel coronavirus-2 (or SARS-CoV-2) extruded upon the world, it spread quickly. Africa appeared to avoid contagion; but the first case was reported in Egypt on February 14th, 2020. On March 14th 2020, Kenya recorded its first case. By then, most countries had shut down air travel, borders, and most human-to-human contact. Kenya then shut down schools, government offices, business and social gatherings. It articulated quarantine protocols and facilities at user cost and imposed a 7pm -5am curfew. Kenya has no social welfare system and makes no provisions for citizens to meet their physiological needs. For Nairobi"s four million plus population, this had deleterious impacts; the myriad small businesses and the 60 percent GDP derived from an agricultural economy also buffeted by 70-year locust infestation and seasonal flooding. Analyzing government responses to COVID-19 reveals a disconnect between elites and every-day citizens, the former unable/unwilling to synthesize the impact of shutdowns on daily wage-earners. The government"s solutions to reduce the spread of Covid-19 were also selfdefeating. This article provides an in-depth analysis of the impact of COVID-19 in Kenya. The analysis shows significant outcomes in health, education and the economy, increased levels of poverty and malnutrition.

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Section: Government Responses: Compounding Policy Errors and Exogenous Environmental Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

To Starve or to Catch Covid-19? Emergency Management of a Public Health Crisis and Impact on Economically Distressed Communities

Ibrahim¹,

Magu²,

Ibrahim³

2021

JSSW

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“…For UHC to be achieved, it is imperative that surgery is financed through a health insurer. Wanjau has previously described what should be done for a national health insurance to adequately finance surgical services (12). The challenges may seem overwhelming but the opportunity at hand is unparalleled.…”

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confidence: 99%

Editorial: Positioning surgery at the core of the universal health coverage agenda

Mwenda¹

2019

Ann Afr Surg.

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Forty years ago, over 3,000 global health experts converged in a city in present day Kazakhstan to chart the way forward on matters public health. At the conclusion, the delegates would adopt 10 key resolutions dubbed The Alma Ata Declaration (1). The Alma Ata Declaration was a giant leap for public health, but it was never to be even a small step for surgery. And so for years, surgery was consigned to the periphery of the global public health agenda (2). Surgery was erroneously deemed 'too expensive, too sophisticated/specialized and not appropriate for public health initiatives' (2), even when statistics emerged showing that surgery was responsible for a significant portion of the global burden of disease (3). Farmer and Kim would, years after Alma Ata, aptly describe surgery as the neglected stepchild of global public health (4). However, recent developments have provided a rare opportunity for us to position surgery at the core of the global public health agenda. First, the 68th World Health Assembly adopted resolution WHA 68.15 which called for strengthening emergency and essential surgery and anaesthesia as components of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) (2). As a result, several low and low-middle income countries (LMICs) are in a race to develop national surgical obstetric and anaesthesia plans. Indeed, this is a step in the right direction. Second, the Kenyan government has adopted UHC as one of the top 4 agenda items for the 2017-2022 governance cycle (5). These developments herald a new opportunity for us all to push for surgery to be at the core of the UHC agenda in our region. We have previously argued in these editorial pages about the role of the surgeon as an advocate (6). The time is nigh for us all to take up that advocacy role individually and as associations. The papers in this issue remind us of the work that lies ahead. We still struggle with congenital (7) and infectious surgical diseases (8) that are competing for the same surgical services in a world where non-communicable advocacy, Health financing, Surgery, Trauma Conflicts: None Funding: None

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Reforming the National Health Insurance Fund for better surgical care financing

Cited by 2 publications

References 16 publications

To Starve or to Catch Covid-19? Emergency Management of a Public Health Crisis and Impact on Economically Distressed Communities

To Starve or to Catch Covid-19? Emergency Management of a Public Health Crisis and Impact on Economically Distressed Communities

Editorial: Positioning surgery at the core of the universal health coverage agenda

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