With savings gone, coronavirus patients in Kenya run into debt to pay for care

Doctors treating patients with coronavirus

As the number of COVID-19 survivors increases globally, so too do the number of people suffering from subsequent health issues which in many cases also threaten their livelihoods.

One of them is Godfrey Maithya, a 44-year-old Kenyan civil servant, who has developed heart problems as a result of his COVID-19 infection and faces his insurance only paying a quarter of his bills. medical.

No longer fighting for her life, but struggling for her livelihood, her local church decided to step in to try and help her pay the rest of her bills, amounting to around 3.9 million Kenyan shillings (about 36 000 US dollars), by launching a fundraiser.

Church members have even put up land titles as collateral to help raise the necessary funds.

As many Kenyans who survived COVID-19, suffered complications and ended up with high medical bills, Maithya’s family’s savings were wiped out by the pandemic. His house and land are about to be auctioned off if he can’t pay the hospital bill.

Maithya visited a private hospital, Karen Hospital in the leafy suburb of Nairobi. The hospital is known to be one of the best hospitals, but like many private hospitals, medical care in Kenya is unaffordable for most people.

Maithya spent nearly two months in hospital, including two weeks in the high addiction unit after suffering from heart failure, a condition he said was triggered by COVID-19.

Another worried man is Maithya’s pastor, Reverend Robert Musili Kaviti. As a church leader, he organized several fundraisers. “But my question is, if I get more than 10 patients in congregations with the same amount, what should the church do?” he said.

Reverend Kaviti faces another problem. The stigma of COVID-19. Once a member of their church is diagnosed with the virus, they are not allowed to congregate with others.

Maithya and her family are all too familiar with the stigma of COVID-19. Even after being declared COVID-19 free, the church fundraiser must have been carried out without him being there, otherwise many worshipers would have boycotted him.

Reverend Kaviti said he was hopeful there might be a global fund or insurance that could subsidize COVID-19 patients.

Calls to Karen Hospital for comment were denied. The director of the finance department told an Associated Press reporter over the phone that they did not tell the media about their patients’ medical bills.