Minet TSC Medical Cover- Teachers sue AON, site various complaints

AON Minet provides medical cover for all teachers employed by the Teachers Service Commission, TSC. The company has provided the cover for many years now.

But, of late, teachers are up in arms against the Company for what they term as ‘inferior medical cover services’.

The teachers have since taken the medical cover provider to court.

“The Employer (TSC) having increased allocation of funds in each cover, the services of both AON Minet and Medical Administrators Kenya Limited (MAKL) which is a member of the consortium with Minet, have remained deficient, disappointing, distressing, discriminatory, disastrous and hellish to the teachers.” Say Teachers who sought for anonymity for fear of being victimized.

Here the complaints by the teachers against the Minet Medical Cover:

1. The cover is of opaque nature as there is no of transparency on the part of TSC and AON Miniet on how much is being deducted from each teacher as regular contribution towards this medical cover.
2. There exits serious bureaucracy in getting payment approvals after treatment.
3. The routine failure/refusal by customer care to receive phone calls from patients (teachers) seeking medical bill settlement approvals, or just for consultations/enquiry.
4. The limited number of spouses and children covered under the policy unfairly discriminates against women and children contrary to express provisions of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010.
5. There is no clear and practical policy implementation and/or arrangement on access to specialized medical treatment for teachers.
6. There is poor choice and insensitive listing of hospitals/facilities without consulting teachers and without giving teachers the right/freedom to choose their facilities of choice and convenience.
7. Lack of drugs in the listed facilities.
8. Rejection of doctor’s treatment recommendations and/or advices by Minet.
9. Impromptu suspension of services by the listed facilities.
10. The uncertainty on the maximum amount insured for each teacher annually.
11. There is a limited number of times a teacher can visit a health facility, the medical condition notwithstanding, thereby threatening those with terminal illness, accidents, wounds, victims of violence, people living positive, children with special medical conditions.
12. There’s exists a bad attitude/approach that the cover is additional or/ supplementary to the NHIF cover therefore the cover is a favor from TSC/MAKAL/ and/or AON Minet.
13. Serious confusions/in fightings between Minet and NHIF on who is suppose to pay what and when.
14. Arbitrary refusal by Minet to approve payments/treatments.

The teachers contend that there is no value for their money due to Minet’s poor services that threatens not only their lives but the lives of their loved ones as well.

In a broader perspective, the teachers accuse AON Minet, MKAL and the TSC, to be in blatant violation of;

• Their rights to the highest attainable standards of health which includes the right to health care services enshrined under Article 43 of the Constitution.
•  Their consumer rights protected under Article 43 of the Constitution which includes the right to services of reasonable quality; to the information necessary for them to gain full benefit from services; to the protection of their health, safety, and economic interests; and to compensation for loss or injury arising from defects in goods or services.