The effects of liberalization on state corporations ‘effectiveness: the case of National Hospital Insurance Fund


 


Introduction


Research project in the fulfillment of MBA Strategic management degree. Focus on the general effects of liberalization to state owned firms and strategies to counter such effects and how to make it competitive. Welfare states in all advanced industrialized countries areunder severe financial stress. Many observers argue that inresponding to such pressures, governments are converging ona path of marketization and privatization of social risks, whichultimately leads to the unraveling of solidarity. Far from convergingon market path, Kenya may have pursued distinctive reformresponse combining markets with other policy instruments. Moreover,where state actors leads the way in constructing health caremarkets, the extent of desolidarity is limited. The structureof Kenya’s health care system shapes the policy preferencesand reform strategies of key actors, and thereby helps explainthe distinctiveness of health care reform patterns.


 


Research questions are essential part of the research process, as this will imply a solid connection towards secondary knowledge composed of peer reviewed studies such as from academic centered journals and articles, also from documented information and facts from books having contents about leadership and change. The research questions serve as the initial organization flow of the study’s review of the literature which leads to the creation of research methods and techniques and the questions were the following:


-      What are the effects of liberalization on state corporations’ effectiveness?


-      How effective is National Hospital Insurance Fund in Kenya? For change certain liberalization in health care.


-      What are some effects of liberalization on state corporation effectiveness, centering on Kenya’s National Hospital Insurance Fund?


-      What is the role of health care leaders in enhancing liberalization towards the state corporation effectiveness?


 


Literature Review


Over a decade since the liberalization in Kenya, yet very little is known about the unfolding status of the movement since then. Given the monopolistic status that cooperatives had been accorded by the state prior to liberalization, analysts have worried whether cooperatives have survived the fierce competition of the liberalized market or they have withered away. The analysis clearly shows that health care liberalization has not seen the cooperative movement wither away. Though in the interim many cooperatives succumbed to the fierce competitive market forces, which continue to adversely affect some organization, the majority have survived the liberalization storm, recording higher growth in NHF standing.


National Hospital Insurance Fund is a State Parastatal that was established in 1966 as a department under the Ministry of Health. The original Act of Parliament that set up this Fund in 1966 has over the years been reviewed to accommodate the changing healthcare needs of the Kenyan population, employment and restructuring in the health sector. NHIF’s core function is to collect contributions from all Kenyans earning an income of over Ksh 1000 () and pay hospital benefits out of the contributions to members and their declared dependants.


 


Obligatory participation in raising the contributions


This is the most typical principle of the present-day social security systems, which ensures that revenues have been generated from the contributions of all the citizens in the country.


 


Participation of the state, the insured and the employers in the NHIF management


The national health insurance fund is a public organization and its structure follows the logic of funds being managed by those who pay in them. The “Employers, state and insured” tripartism is in the basis of the assembly of NHIF representatives and in governing the processes running in the national health insurance fund.


 


Solidarity of the insured in using the raised funds


The principle of solidarity provides for the possibility to redistribute the income from contributions from the healthy to the ill, from the rich to the poor, from the young to the adults.


 


Responsibility of the insured for their own health


Every insured individual has to be individually responsible for his/her health and fulfill the instructions of medical care providers and the requirements for disease prevention in accordance with the National Framework Contract (NFC) and the contracts with providers.


 


Methodology


Case study approach, case based information and analysis, examine the role and nature of the market for NHF in Kenya and review the impact of liberalization on the development of NHF market in the past years. The conceptual framework, based on model of case study analysis, there allows wide range of liberalization policy regarding market structure as well as performance. By analyzing NHF principles of Kenya market for voluntary health insurance, there is a need to raise questions about the equity and efficiency of NHF as a means of funding health care in Kenya. The analysis suggests that the market for voluntary health insurance suffers from significant information failures that seriously limit its potential for competition or efficiency and also reduce equity. Substantial deregulation of market for health insurance has stripped regulatory bodies of their power to protect consumers and poses interesting challenges for Kenya regulators, particularly if the liberalization is to assume competence. In a deregulated environment, it is questionable whether this method of funding NHF in Kenya will encourage a more efficient and equitable allocation of resources.


 


 


 



Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com


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