NAIROBI – August 19, 2025
Kenya’s healthcare system is under siege, not just from underfunding and neglect, but from the powerful grip of insurance cartels that have inserted themselves between doctors and their patients.
For years, Kenyans have faithfully paid insurance premiums expecting protection and access to quality healthcare. Instead, what they often encounter are endless restrictions, delays, and denials. Insurance companies dictate:
Where patients can seek care
Which doctors they can consult
Which tests and drugs they are allowed to receive
This interference undermines the doctor-patient relationship and denies Kenyans the care they need, when they need it.
Worse still, insurers delay claim settlements, force patients to pay cash upfront, and even compel public institutions like the Social Health Authority (SHA) to pay bills in advance. These practices drain public funds meant for the poor and vulnerable. At the same time, insurers continue to raise premiums for patients while capping payments to healthcare providers, squeezing both ends of the system.
This is nothing short of blackmail. Big insurance companies are exploiting Kenyans and bullying doctors and hospitals into submission. Yet regulators, the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) and the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA), have failed in their duty to protect the public from these exploitative practices.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) will not stand by silently. Very soon, we shall release a “List of Shame” naming the insurance companies that are most culpable, so that Kenyans can make informed choices about which companies to avoid.
It is time to break the chains of insurance cartels. Doctors want nothing more than to care for their patients, without interference, without exploitation, and without blackmail.
KMPDU — Standing Strong for Doctors, Patients, and Quality Healthcare
