Ghana Medical Trust Fund launch: Support MahamaCares - President urges corporate Ghana

The President, John Dramani Mahama, has appealed to organisations in the public and private sectors to devote a portion of their annual social investments to support the Ghana Medical Trust Fund, otherwise known as the MahamaCares Initiative.

He explained that those who would benefit from the fund were either their clients or staff; therefore, supporting the cause would be a worthy cause for both the benefactors and beneficiaries.

The President made the appeal yesterday at the launch of the Medical Trust Fund at the University of Ghana Medical School (UGMC), Legon in Accra.

Initiative

MahamaCares is a landmark initiative introduced by the government to decisively confront the growing burden of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

The fund will support specialist-level treatment for a range of chronic diseases, including cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney failure, stroke and other complications.

It will also progressively expand to cover convalescent (recovery) care, palliative (pain management) services, and home-based support.

Support from the fund will be based on formal applications, which will be carefully vetted. It will focus on costs not currently covered under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

The main source of finance for the fund is proceeds from the uncapped portion of the National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL), which is 2.5 per cent of value added goods and services and value of import charges.

It will also include direct budgetary allocations from the government, voluntary contributions from corporate institutions and individuals, grants and donations.

The fund has also been designed to invest proceeds to generate more income. 

Treatment cost

Citing personal experiences of loved ones, including his mother, father and stepmother, who suffered NCDs, President Mahama acknowledged that the cost of treatment for NCDs was not just disturbing but could be devastating for low-income families.

He said managing such diseases imposed an excruciating financial burden on families, often pushed them below the poverty line and deepened their vulnerability.

Quoting estimates from the country’s teaching hospitals, he said the average annual cost of NCD treatment per patient stood at approximately GH¢53,000, and that was equivalent to about $3,300.

“It is estimated that individuals diagnosed with chronic diseases face a 75 per cent likelihood of falling into poverty within five years, regardless of their original economic standing.

“Those battling kidney and cardiovascular diseases are reported to spend between 70 per cent and 95 per cent of their non-food expenditure on health care alone.

Older adults living with chronic conditions spend five times more on health care than their healthier counterparts,” the President referenced established data.

President Mahama, therefore, pledged six months of his salary to support the fund.

He said in spite of the important strides made, the NHIS remained inadequate in fully covering NCD-related services and medications, pointing out that in 2018, around 48 per cent of all NHIS claims were related to NCDs, yet essential services remained outside the NHIS coverage, leaving families dangerously exposed to out-of-pocket payments.

President Mahama said it was against that background that shortly after his election as President, he directed the establishment of the fund, which was a commitment captured in the 2024 People's Manifesto of the National Democratic Congress(NDC).

He explained that the fund would operate as an independent statutory trust, governed by a board of trustees, and supported by a dedicated administrative secretariat, third-party administrators and patient navigators to ensure transparency, efficiency and a patient-centred service ethic.

The President disclosed that initial projections suggested that the fund would require approximately GH¢3 billion annually over the first three years.

Specialists

The Rector of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, Professor Richard Adanu, said the country needed specialists from various fields of the healthcare force, such as nurses and pharmacists, to have efficient healthcare delivery.

He said that through some analysis done by the college, they realised that the country needed about 6,500 additional specialists of all categories to be able to deliver the kind of care that was needed by 2030.

Currently, the country has about 2,000 specialists in training and could halve the gap if all regional hospitals were fully delivering postgraduate training, Prof. Adanu said.

He, therefore, appealed to the President to make that happen in his second term in office.

“We believe that it is possible in four years to have all the regional hospitals fully delivering a certain set of postgraduate programmes, and if we do that, we can increase the number of specialists in training currently from 2,000 to 3,000,” Prof. Adanu said.

Estimates

The Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, said estimates from the World Health Organisation indicated that NCDs remained a leading global health challenge, responsible for 75 per cent of non-pandemic-related deaths worldwide in 2021.

The statistics also show that low and middle-income countries continued to bear the heaviest burden, accounting for 73 per cent of the NCD-related deaths, primarily due to cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes.

“In Ghana, the situation of NCDs remains critical; they account for approximately 43 per cent of all-cause mortality, with a significant rise recorded between 2012 and 2023.

Today, it ranks among the top 10 causes of death. Alarmingly, individuals between 18 and 45 constitute over 50 per cent of the NCD cases,” Mr Akandor stated.

The Chief of Health of UNICEF Ghana, Manuel Dewez, said development partners were ready to provide the necessary support for the Ministry of Health and its agencies to help save lives, improve the health of present and future generations, and ensure that the human, social and financial burden of NCDs did not undermine the development progress made in Ghana in recent years.

The Head of the Task Force for the fund, Rev. Prof. Emeritus Seth Aryeetey, who made a substantial donation to the fund, said members of the team were on many occasions heartbroken by stories of patients who were suffering from chronic diseases.