Kenyan families are struggling to cope with the skyrocketing cost of healthcare as medical bills continue to rise sharply due to the weakening shilling.
The surge in medical costs has resulted in a rise in fundraising through mobile money paybill numbers and social media platforms such as WhatsApp.
Families are turning to informal groups, including family, friends, and colleagues, to raise funds for medical treatment, and some are even depositing their assets, such as land title deeds and motor vehicle logbooks, as collateral to medical service providers.
This trend has also extended to depositing title deeds in banks as collateral for loans to offset hospital bills. The rise in medical costs has also led to an increase in registrations for medical fundraisers on Safaricom’s Lipa na M-Pesa short-term paybill service.
Additionally, prices of key imported medical supplies have shot up significantly due to the weakened shilling, making healthcare even more expensive for Kenyans.
