Sustaining NHIA: Regional Consultative Forum held in Kumasi

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Dr. Samuel Yaw Annor, has called for the need to increase the Scheme’s current financing model from US$ 30 to US$ 86 per person per year to have a basic healthcare system or to US$100 per person per year to have a premium healthcare system in Ghana.

He also said the NHIA had proposed various financing models to government such as increasing the VAT component to 3.5 per cent, a health tax on cigarette to treat smokers, taxes on alcohol and sugar to cater for sugar diseases amongst others to shore up funds for the Scheme.

Dr. Samuel Annor said this during stakeholders’ engagement in Kumasi on Tuesday, June 19, 2018 to discuss issues affecting the implementation of the scheme.

With the theme “NHIS financial sustainability, a collective responsibility”, the forum to solicit ideas and suggestions from all stakeholders in the country on how to improve upon the financial incomes to enable the Scheme survive from collapsing.

It also provided a unique opportunity for stakeholders to fashion a common effective response to the challenges identified with the scheme.

Addressing the participants, Dr. Samuel Yaw Annoh said “a levy being paid by NHIS beneficiaries to do registration or to renew their cards are not adequate enough to enable the scheme have a successfully implementation of the service demanding by them, so there is a need to find another source to finance the scheme from collapsing.”

“There is the need for the government to impose extra taxes on some commodities like alcoholic beverages and non alcoholic beverages which contains much sugar contributing to many diseases in body system, to support the financial stability of the Scheme, he added.

Dr. Annor hinted that the NHIA has adopted a process of eliminating all inefficiencies in the scheme and the processing of clients’ claims will soon be done electronically to ensure genuine claims and quick payment as against the current manual system of processing them.