For decades, millions of Kenyans went without any health insurance. Hospital bills pushed families
into poverty. The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), which was meant to help left out huge portions of the population, particularly those in the informal sector, the unemployed, and the very poor.
On October 1, 2024, the Government replaced NHIF with the Social Health Authority (SHA). SHA is not just a new name for the same thing. It is a fundamentally different approach to health
financing. Under SHA, every person living in Kenya is covered.