Abstract The strength and health of a nation’s economy strongly lies on the stability and quality of the said nation’s healthcare. Developed and developing nations alike need to focus on the variables of healthcare like life expectancy, death rate and compare how these variables affect economic productivity. Countries spend a huge portion of their budgets to finance healthcare and healthcare infrastructure. The government’s ability to effectively finance and expand health services is mostly determined by the state of the country’s economy. Kenya is a developing nation in the East coast of Africa. As of 2012, the country had a GDP of $37.2 billion and a population of 43.1 million people. As a developing nation, the country has been trying to make strides and grow in the different sectors of the economy; healthcare is one of these sectors that have been growing. This research focuses on the methods used by the government of Kenya to finance healthcare and the impact of the government’s financing on health and healthcare systems since Kenya achieved independence in 1963, the Kenyan government made universal healthcare one of its main goals. Research questions Who finances healthcare in Kenya and how is it disbursed? What are the financing challenges? -High cost of out of pocket spending(20% of population can not access healthcare) -Inadequate funding from the government -Heavy reliance on donor funding (70% of key programs are funded by donors) -Low population coverage by insurance (10% of population with medical cover) What are the domestic health financing initiatives? -Restructuring of National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) -Free deliveries at public facilities- aims to increase access by the poor and reduce MMR -Abolition of user fees at lower level facilities and compensating the hospitals for lost revenue Finalization of the healthcare financing strategy that aims towards Universal Healthcare Coverage.

Figure 1. Thihows

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Acknowledgements & References This research was made possible by the work of 1.McIntyre D: Learning from experience: Health care financing in low-and middle-income countries. Global Forum for Health Research; 2007. 2. D Collins, J D Quick, S N Musau, D Kraushaanar, I M Hussein. (1996) Health Policy and Planning, 52-63 3. Shaw RP; Griffin CC(1995) Financing health care in Sub-Saharan Africa through user fees and insurance, 99-103 4. Ministry of Medical services, Ministry of Public Health: Kenya household expenditure and utilization survey report 2007.Accessed on June 19, 2014. 5. Kutzin J: A descriptive framework for country-level analysis of health care financing arrangements. Health policy. 2001,171-204. 6. National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) Accreditation manual-2005 (http://www.nhif.or.ke/healthinsurance/) Accessed on June 25, 2014. A special thanks goes to faculty advisors ; Dr. Catherine Lau, Dr. Brian Shwartz, and the entire SURE advisory committee

HEALTHCARE & HEALTHCARE FINANCING METHODS IN KENYA

Magdalene A. Odhiambo Department of Business, Carthage College

Celebration of Scholars 2015: Exposition of Student & Faculty Research, Scholarship &Creativity

Value World Rank

Population Total 43,102,772 33

Sex Ratio M / F 1.00 79

Population 0-14 42.3 % 29

Population 15-64 55.1 % 159

Population 65 + 2.6 % 177

Population Growth 2.69 21

Death Rate / 1000 9.72 65

Birth Rate / 1000 36.64 27

Fertility Rate 4.56 34

Infant Mortality 48.30 40

GDP per capita (USD) $1,600 161

Unemployment 40.0 13