In 2008 Population Services Kenya (PS Kenya) began a journey that now provides over 3.5 million Kenyans with better healthcare each year.The Tunza family health network was established in response to a need that PS Kenya had observed in its work delivering reproductive and family health services to under served communities. Developed as a social health franchise, Tunza provides family health services through an innovative franchise model. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has steadily been gaining traction as a viable model of increasing access to, providing ¬nancing for and delivering equitable health services across the globe. Endorsed as a UN resolution in December 2012, UHC is now ¬nding its home nationally as part of the current government’s Big Four policy agenda. Kenya has the distinct advantage of a national insurance fund that can accelerate the achievement of this goal. An estimated 15 million people were under cover in 2017, mainly those in the formal sector which NHIF had been originally mandated to cover. Products like SupaCover have been instrumental in serving Kenyans who are in the informal sector and registrations will likely continue as more people learn of the advantages of cover.
A significant challenge is ensuring that, once one has a card in hand, there is an easily-accessible facility that can provide quality services on-demand. PS Kenya’s work in increasing the number of Tunza network members who are accredited by NHIF and, therefore, available for the public to receive services from, has been instrumental in the path towards UHC.
