Restructure NHIS
-Muntaka
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri

THE CHAIRMAN of the parliamentary-select committee on health, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak has called on the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to undertake constructive decisions in order to make the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) suitable more for Ghanaians.
He said even though the authority is at liberty to tap into the experiences of other countries with regards to best practices, it must ensure that the scheme is appropriate for the Ghanaian populace.

“We should look at best practices from other jurisdictions but we must provide a scheme that will work for us as Ghanaians,” he said.
Alhaji Muntaka made the recommendation at the second NHIS stakeholders’ forum held in Accra themed: “Building Stakeholder Consensus towards Quality and Sustainability.”
He said government is making all the necessary amendments to ensure the early release of funds by the Ministry of Finance to the authority.
“Government is doing all it can to resolve the challenge the Ministry of Finance is facing with the release of funding to NHIA.”
He further called on the authority to increase their coverage adding that 51% of those covered are persons below eighteen years of age.
“This means that those that are paying are not properly covered. Act 650 of 2003 mandates every person to register for the scheme,” he noted.
Minister of Health, Joseph Yieleh Chireh, also affirmed government’s commitment to the scheme.
“Last week, I laid before parliament a bill to replace the existing NHIS law,” he said.
He noted that the law which is undergoing changes will help the authority operate more efficiently.
The sector minister however suggested computerization of registered persons under the scheme to reduce the volume of NHIS cards in hospitals.
The Chief Executive Officer of NHIA, Sylvester Mensah, said the aim of holding the forum was to express the authority’s commitment to transparency and its willingness to learn in order to improve the quality of service provided to the country.
“This forum will also help in sustaining the standard we have set in quality health delivery as well as solicit views, ideas and concerns on how we can move forward,” he explained.
He further noted that the scheme had reached its present stage as a result of the strong non-partisan political will in the country.
This, he said had enabled the authority to make claim payments within 60 days instead of the previous payment duration of nine months.
Mr. Mensah said the authority had also made great strides in its financial management adding “the first annual report of NHIS will be on our website next week.”

Caption: The Minister of Health in a discussion with Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Elias Sory at the event.