This cannot happen in any part of the world - Randy Abbey shocked at health minister’s NHIS comment

Media personality, Randy Abbey, has expressed his shock and discontentment at some comments the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, made about the National Health Insurance card.

On Tuesday, April 18, 2023, the Minister of Health stated that he pays cash whenever he visited the hospital despite being an NHIS card holder.

Agyeman-Manu said this during a meeting with some Ghana Health Service officers and friends from the media as he concluded that the scheme is not working.

The minister said, “From the end-user point of view, it looks like the health insurance is not working. I am a patient and I know what it is.

"I pay when I go to Ridge Hospital. I pay when I go to UGMC. I don’t even present my insurance card.”

In reaction to this, Randy made known his disappointment in the Minister and Ministry of Health.

He added that there is nowhere in this world where the overseer of the health ministry will pass this comment and remain in office.

“If the health minister of the Republic of Ghana, who is covered by the NHIS goes to the hospital with his family and he pays cash because he says that the scheme doesn’t work so, he pays cash. He sees the scheme as worthless, he sees the use of his card as worthless and he pays cash. And he is the health minister of the Republic of Ghana and addresses officers of NHIA including the media saying that the thing is not working. He, as a minister, he pays from his pocket for himself and family, not on the basis of the fact that he can afford it but because it doesn’t work. The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Ghana?

“I don’t see any country in this world where the health minister of that country will say that and still continue in office. I mean, where in this world that a health minister knows that the Health Insurance Scheme doesn’t work and he as a person, he’s been paying out of pocket for himself and family and even named the facilities where this occurs,” Randy Abbey stated.

ABJ/FNOQ