NHIS risks collapse

Sogakope, Oct 22, GNA - Dr Raymond Atugubah, a lawyer, has said the National Health Insurance Scheme risked premature collapse under its current legislative management and administrative structure. He said Act 650, which established the institutional framework of the scheme, needed to be repealed as it contains many loopholes inhibiting the smooth operation of the scheme.

Dr Atuguba said this when he presented a policy review document on the NHIS undertaken by his outfit at a legislative review stakeholders meeting on Wednesday at Sogakope.

The one day meeting brought together medical and legal practitioners, NHIS officials, labour, traditional health practitioners, pharmacists, employers and development partners from the Greater, Volta and Central regions.

The meeting was the last of such regional meetings to invite broader stakeholder inputs into NHIS bill.

Dr Atuguba said Article 650 created a dichotomy on the role of the National Health Insurance Authority over the District Mutual Health Schemes, which by their establishment are autonomous, thus creating problems such as the inability to check frauds and other issues in the district. He said though the scheme registered about 50 percent of Ghanaians at a time, it failed to address issues of growth in health infrastructure development and management of personnel and additional health staff creating problems similar to the cash and carry system.

Dr Atuguba, a law lecturer at the University of Ghana, proposed a National Insurance Commission instead of an Authority, a fund manager for the scheme and a legislator to be in charge of legislations and bye-laws. Mr Sylvester Mensah, Chief Executive of NHIS Authority, said in an address read for him that the Authority was taking initiatives including improvement in the ICT system, procedure and policy standardization, strengthening human capital and improvement in monitoring and evaluation. 22 Oct 09