Ghana’s NHIS is a model for Africa – Sylvester Mensah

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

The Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr Sylvester Mensah, has stated that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has become a model for other African countries to learn from, although it continues to receive a lot of criticism from Ghanaians.

He said the African Development Bank (AfDB) had asked African countries to adopt Ghana’s health insurance model, adding, “Several countries have visited Ghana to learn from us.”

Mr Mensah made the statement when he called on the Managing Director of Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, and interacted with some senior editorial staff of the group in Accra yesterday.

The call was to formally invite the company to its 10^th anniversary commemoration and also seek partnership that will inure to the mutual benefit of the two establishments.

While admitting that the NHIA was not a repository of knowledge, Mr Sylvester Mensah lamented that some accusations leveled against the Authority were by people who were aligned, who attacked when they did not have to.

Operations Reviewed

Mr Mensah said the authority had reviewed its operations in the last couple of years to rectify some of the challenges they had encountered with the NHIS.

One-time Premium Scrapped

Answering a question on a supposed one-time payment premium for health insurance, he stated emphatically, “The one-time premium is history,” explaining that the decision was arrived at during a stakeholders’ forum organised by government late last year.

Innovations Introduced

Mr Sylvester Mensah said to tackle the problem of delays and non-issuance of ID cards the NHIA had begun a pilot of instant issuance of cards after biometric registration.

He mentioned one big challenge facing the implementation of the scheme, as its “very huge and generous” benefit package, with whose sustainability the NHIA had been saddled.

He was, however, very optimistic that as the issue was currently before Cabinet, it would be addressed before the year ended.

Stating that any weak link in the health insurance system undermined everything else, Mr Mensah urged the media to assist in education on the scheme.

10^th Anniversary Commemoration

He outlined activities for commemoration of the scheme’s 10^th anniversary which will be on the main theme: “Towards Universal Health Coverage” and sub-theme: “Increasing Enrolment and Ensuring Sustainability” as two lectures; with the first to be held on September 26, 2013 and an international forum from November 4 to November 6, 2013 in Accra.

Mr Ashigbey congratulated the NHIA and pledged that GCGL will look at how best to partner the NHIA in its commemoration.

This was first published by the Daily Graphic in its September 17, 2013 issue