GMA urges NHIA to address challenges facing NHIS

Accra, Aug. 27, GNA - The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) on Thursday said despite the challenges confronting the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), it remains the best health policy that must be supported by all stakeholders to make it sustainable.

Some of the challenges are weak systems, poor monitoring and evaluation, poor institutional and professional accountability, inadequate and inequitable distribution of health professional, poor working condition, the absence of clear boundaries of the market in health care delivery leading to unbridled and unacceptable advertisement.

"GMA is of the view and conviction that it is the single State intervention that has brought accessible, equitable and affordable health care to most Ghanaians," GMA President Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful said in Accra.

Dr Winful was addressing a press conference to launch the 10th Annual Public Lecture of GMA scheduled for September 1.

It is under the theme "The NHIS Opening the Policy Dialogue for Universal Coverage".

For the past 10 years, GMA has institutionalised the public lectures

and devoted them to discuss issues that deserve urgent national attention.

These include HIV and AIDS in 2000, health care financing in Ghana in 2002, carnage on the roads and impact of health on the nation.

"The NHIS is like a baby delivered through caesarean section and it came out asphyxiated and has to be resuscitated. The baby has been taken off life support but is not yet out of the woods," Dr Winful added.

He pointed out that although the nation's health care delivery had undergone tremendous transformation for improvement over the years, there were still enormous challenges facing it.

Dr Winful said issues of maternal mortality, infant mortality and under five mortality rates were at best stagnant and still battling with diseases that should have been eradicated years ago.

However, he noted that all was not gloomy because modest gains had been made in terms of increased accessibility but these issues if not addressed properly and promptly, could derail the smooth growth of the NHIS.

Dr Winful pointed out that most often GMA was misconstrued to be raising false alarms about the imminent collapse of the scheme when attention to these issues were drawn.

He, therefore, called on government to support the scheme with the provision of extra cash inflows (such as the oil revenue) when the traditional sources were inadequate to assure the health institution of timely and adequate reimbursement to enable them to provide quality health care service to the public.

"The GMA is a partner in the process of evolving a social health insurance scheme that would benefit all Ghanaians and stand the test of time therefore, dedicated this year's GMA Lectures to NHIS," he said.

Dr Sam Adjei, Chief Executive Officer of Centre for Health and Social Services (CHeSS), said stakeholders should be allowed to play their roles effectively to sustain the scheme.

He called on NHIA to address the systematic failures, especially delayed payment which was injurious to the scheme.