The Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, says the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has significantly improved under the Akufo-Addo administration.
According to the Majority Leader, during the eight-year tenure of the National Democratic Congress, the NHIS faced several challenges, particularly in record-keeping and payment to service providers.
He highlighted instances where health providers were owed for several months, leading to a decline in the acceptance of NHIS cards at hospitals.
“You will go to the hospital and be told that the NHIS won’t be accepted. So people even abandoned it. The records are there. The patronage had gone down to just around 1.5 million. Today, what do we see? An astronomical increase in the patronage of health insurance because the system is in place to pay.
“Despite the challenges, we chalked some success. And I am saying that the fact that the patronage, the use, the reliance of the NHIS policy has increased should tell you that something good is happening there,” he said.
While acknowledging current challenges with the scheme, Mr Afenyo-Markin stated that the current government has outperformed its predecessor in addressing these challenges.
“I admit that we do not have a perfect system. But we have done better than we came to meet. That point must also be made. And I am saying that, if hospitals were complaining bitterly, you will go to a hospital and they turn you down because they say that the government owes them several months and they are not paying, you should go back home.”
The NHIS is a social intervention programme introduced by the John Kufuor government to provide financial access to quality health care for residents in Ghana.
The scheme is largely funded by the National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL), which is a 2.5% levy on goods and services collected under the Value Added Tax (VAT).
2.5 percentage points of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributions per month returns on National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) investments premium are also paid by informal sector subscribers.
Government allocation complements the funding of the scheme.