Dr Kweku Afriyie, Minister of Health, on Friday said the abolishment of "cash and carry" system would be effective within the next five years after legislation has been passed by Parliament.
The implementation, which would not be effective as early as envisaged, demanded that it passes through certain processes, create necessary bodies and intensify public education on the subject, Dr Afriyie told a forum organised by the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) on the theme "Viable national health insurance scheme".
The Ministry had at the moment finalised the document policy and draft legislation, which would be presented to Cabinet for approval before Parliament debate and passes it into law.
Dr Afriyie said all was set for the take-off in terms of finance but "the only problem they might face was the collection of the premium from the informal sector where identification would be very difficult.
"If the national identification system is put in place then we will fall on it or else we have to develop a system of identifying people in the informal sector for the collection of their premium".
The "cash and carry" system has received a lot of criticisms for not being friendly to the poor, unemployed, aged and children. People, who fall within this category, have complained that they were not able to purchase drugs and receive proper treatment because they had to pay up front before service was rendered to them.
Dr Afriyie said the government, last year, paid 12 billion cedis for exemptions for the aged, children under five and pregnant women and budgeted for 60 billion cedis this year.
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