Release health insurance cash now

The Government has been urged to release funds from the accumulated national health insurance levy and other sources to enable the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to prepare adequately for challenges inherent in the implementation of the health insurance scheme.

?Already, there is evidence that utilisation has increased about one-and-a-half to two times in facilities that have started giving benefits,? Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, director-general of the GHS said in an address read on his behalf at the service?s senior managers meeting held at Ho in the Volta region last Monday.

The four-day workshop is being attended by 150 officials and 10 development partners in the health sector who will focus their deliberation on the review of their collaborative performance in supervision and set priorities for planning and budgeting for next year.

Prof. Badu Akosa cautioned that the work load on facilities was likely to increase with the implementation of the scheme. He said also that the implementation should be result-oriented, and asked health workers to pay much attention to equity, efficiency and sustainability to ensure a healthy nation.

Mr Joseph Nayan, deputy Volta regional minister, asked health workers not to relent in their efforts to provide efficient and effective supervision in order to provide quality health care delivery through high productivity.