Restore confidence in NHIS
Health, it is said, is wealth. In other words, anybody who is healthy is capable of working to earn a living. It is for this reason that the sages say a healthy mind is in a healthy body.
At the personal, communal and governmental levels, everything is done to promote a strong and healthy society which can lead to productive endeavours.
In most societies today, focus is being placed on preventive, instead of curative, health because even if a country has the wherewithal to provide the facilities for health care, there will be the loss of man-hours from the people who are indisposed.
From time immemorial, the people have been used to the cash-and-carry system where, in even government hospitals, the people have to pay for health care, although some level of government support has always been available.
Attempts at finding alternatives that will help abolish cash and carry proved unsuccessful, largely because of the lack of capacity of the government to pay for the budget of the health sector.
In the 1990s, the government took the bold decision to experiment with a social health financing initiative with the introduction of a health insurance scheme on a pilot basis.
To achieve the objectives outlined in the pilot programme, a few districts were selected to experiment with the scheme because of the cost involved and the experiences of other countries that failed in the same endeavour because of inadequate resources.
In the mid 2000s, the government took the decision to implement the scheme nationwide and imposed a National Health Insurance Levy to finance the initiative.
The implementation processes have not been rosy so far, with delays in the payment of service providers and the submission of claims above what service providers have offered to their clients.
Unfortunately, current economic difficulties in the country have aggravated the financing arrangements for health care, resulting in many of the service providers not being paid for the services they have offered to the people.
The Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) has, on a number of occasions, raised concern over the way the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is being managed, resulting in delays in paying health facilities for services they rendered.
Presently, some members of CHAG have withdrawn their services to the people because managers of the scheme are indebted to the mission hospitals in excess of GH¢50 million.
Other private service providers are reported to have signalled their intention to turn their backs on NHIS card holders from today.
The health needs of the people are key to the survival and development of our country and everything must be done to make health care more accessible to the people.
The Daily Graphic appeals to CHAG to continue to dialogue with the Ministry of Health, with the view to resolving the impasse between the association and the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
We know the situation is critical in most of the mission hospitals, as a source at CHAG has said “we cannot afford simple disposables”.
Concerns over delays in paying for services provided are not peculiar to the mission hospitals, as government and private hospitals have issues with delayed payments that affect the quality of health care.
In the case of Ghana, the NHIS is gradually becoming a nightmare for healthcare providers, as the scheme is unable to pay the health facilities.
The Daily Graphic calls on the government to end the erosion of the people’s confidence in the scheme by paying health providers for the services they provide for the people to guarantee a healthy society.
