Teachers’ Maternity Visits on the Rise; TSC Medical Cover Report
According to figures from the teachers’ medical coverage, there have been around 125,494 births in the profession of teaching during the past seven years.
Teachers are having more children at a time when their boss, the Teachers Service Commission, has made it easier for them to take time off for maternity leave. This is part of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The deal made paternity leave three weeks long and increased the length of maternity leave to four months.
The TSC Utilisation Summary Report states that in the 2021/22 period, a total of 27,445 visits were made for maternity services.
It indicates that there has been a total of 27,445 visits to maternity services in the 2021/22 period.
There has been 21,342 pregnancy visits in 2020/21, 16,053 in 2019/20, 19,331 in 2018/19, 24,186 in 2017/18, 13,169 in 2016/17, and only 3,968 in 2015/16.
| Period | Maternity Visits | Outpatient Visits |
|---|---|---|
| 2021/22 | 27,445 | 1,708,411 |
| 2020/21 | 21,342 | 1,673,440 |
| 2019/20 | 16,053 | 1,305,010 |
| 2018/2019 | 19,331 | 1,631,413 |
| 2017/18 | 24,186 | 1,597,313 |
| 2016/17 | 13,169 | 1,997,463 |
| 2015/16 | 3,968 | 2,207,582 |
Minet Kenya is in charge of running the health care program. On July 1, 2015, TSC hired the insurer to run the health plan.
The bid was extended on December 1, 2022, and over 341,837 public school teachers should be able to get full medical insurance for the next three years.
Over 17 years, 727,123 individuals were covered by the plan. By 2022, that number had risen to 1,229,504, and members had gone to hospitals at least 13 million times to get medical care during that time.
These visits include stays in the hospital, visits to the doctor’s office, tooth and eye care, pregnancies and deliveries, and treatment overseas .
Most of the members’ use of the cover was for outpatient visits, with a total of 12,120,632 trips in the seven years it has been in place.
In 2015/16, there were 2,207,582 outpatient visits, which was the most. In 2016/17, there were 1,997,463 visits, 1,597,313 in 2017/18, 1,631,413 in 2018/19, 1,305,010 in 2019/20, 1,673,440 in 2020/21, and 1,708,411 in 2021/22.
The report also says that the members went to the dentist a total of 498,202 times. The number of trips to the dentist has been going up, with the most in 2021/22 (99,893).
In the last seven years, recipients had made 587,503 visits for eye care.
According to statistics from their medical insurer, the teaching fraternity had 1,457 deaths between 2020 and 2021, making it the year with the most deaths and grief.
This also happened at the same time as the Covid-19 pandemic, which killed over 41 teachers and may have been a sign of the sharp rise in deaths during the same time.
The study shows that 7,442 people who were covered by the teachers’ medical plan have died since the program started in 2015.
It shows that, for group life and last cost, an average of 1,000 teachers have died each year, except in 2020/21.
Teachers’ Maternity Visits on the Rise; TSC Medical Cover Report