Free primary healthcare is easiest policy for Mahama to implement - Akandoh

Ranking Member on Health Committee of Parliament, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has said the implementation of the free primary healthcare for all Ghanaians enshrined in the 2020 manifesto of the NDC is the easiest policy for the presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama to achieve.

According to him, former President John Dramani Mahama has a well-thought-out plan for the implementation of the free primary healthcare for Ghanaians, which will take care of the debts owed to the health providers without backlogs.

Speaking on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, the Juaboso lawmaker said "it is a policy that John Dramani Mahama has analysed again and found solution to. What we intend to do is that there is already a law which enjoins every Ghanaian to contribute to the National Health Insurance Fund and if the fund gets to the National Health Insurance Authority; within a month, the Finance Minister will issue payment and the country will not be owing the health service providers."

“So, in our manifesto, we said that if we win power again, we will make sure that the health insurance fund gets to the National Health Insurance Authority within the month after the contributions have been made by Ghanaians”, he stressed.

Hinting on other alternative sources of funding for the free primary healthcare policy, Mintah Akandoh revealed that a John Mahama government will tap into funds from new oil fields and pump them into the health sector.

“The NDC government will put measures in place to ensure that some funds will be taken from the new oil discoveries and inject them into the health sector and so clearly it is not difficult to provide free primary healthcare as promised by John Dramani Mahama.

“The NDC led by John Dramani Mahama is saying that if you are sick and you go to the health centres, the district hospitals, and CHPS Compounds, you will not pay any money and so the primary healthcare will be free if the NDC comes to power again in 2020”, he insisted.

"We all know that in this country, it is food and healthcare that will ensure longevity and so if you get a government that will make the effort to make primary healthcare free for everyone who is sick, then it is welcoming news," he added.

He again disclosed that the NDC will ensure that every region, especially the new six regions without regional hospitals will be provided one as well as every district in the country.

“NDC government also promised every district without hospital will be provided with one. All abandoned health facilities in the country which have not been completed by the Akufo-Addo government will be completed when we win power in the 2020 elections”, he assured.