Capitalist NPP Pushes for Equity in Health Delivery

Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, Minister of Health has noted that the Health Insurance Scheme if well implemented would shift the balance of power in healthcare in favour of the poor and the afflicted.

"It is a visa that would take Ghanaians to the land where they would experience equity, risk pooling, equalisation and the real sense of humanity," he said.

Dr. Afriyie said the irony with the passage of the National Insurance Bill is that a government known to have a capitalist orientation was promoting a measure that was rooted in socialism.

The Health Minister was contributing to debate on the second reading of the National Insurance Bill on Tuesday

Yaw Osafo Maafo, Minister of Finance who laid the bill said the National Health Insurance was a major campaign promise that has to be delivered to keep the trust and faith the people have in the government.

He said as a result the government would not give in to those, who are using various means to keep the cash and carry system in operation.

The Minister was speaking at the second reading of the National Health Insurance Bill in Parliament on Tuesday.

He explained that the two-and-a-half percent that would be taken off the 17.5 per cent being the monthly worker and employer contribution to the pension fund would not collapse the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), adding that a prudent investment of the 15 per cent would keep the fund intact.

Osafo Maafo said most countries in Africa have pegged their contributions at fifteen per cent and yet their pensions have not suffered.

He said the major problem government had with the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) was its long chain of bad investments and avoidable losses. He was however optimistic that with prudent investment, SSNIT could turn its 3.9 trillion cedi assets into a very viable fund.

Mr Felix Owusu Agyepong, the Majority Leader, said government had decided that Ghanaians must live before they die.

"We have come to serve Ghana and not here to do politics. The NDC which is opposed to the well-being of the people should not be given the leadership role in the future." He said credit must be given to Parliament and not the Executive for the processing of the Bill because the Leadership and members in Charge of it had worked hard to make it a reality.