MP for Juaboso Constituency and ranking member on health in Parliament, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh
The Member of Parliament for Juaboso Constituency and ranking member on health in Parliament, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has revealed that the Nana Addo-led administration never accounted for National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) collections since 2018 till date.
According to him, the National Health Insurance Act(Act 852) has mandatory statutory requirements in terms of transfer and reporting on NHIL collections.
Speaking on the 7th edition of the NDC 360 show with Malik Basintale, Akandoh indicated the funding sources of the National Health Insurance fund are enumerated in Section 41 of Act 852 with the major source being the National Health Insurance Levy (currently 25% on all goods and services) as provided in Section 47, two and a half percentage points of each person's contribution to SSNIT, Grants, donations, gifts, voluntary contribution and monies approved by parliament.
In addition, after collecting the levies, Section 52 (1)(2) of Act 852 stipulates that “The Minister responsible for finance shall within thirty days after the collection of the Levy cause the Levy to be paid directly into the fund and furnish the Minister responsible for health and the authority with evidence of payment."
The minister responsible for finance shall present to Parliament every six months a report on the payment of levies into the fund.
"Under this NPP regime, they have never accounted or reported on what the Act stipulates, causing them to breach that law”.
However, the NPP government introduced “The Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Bill” through the finance minister on the 21st of March 2017 which was assented into Act by President Nana Addo on the 5th of April 2017 giving the finance ministry powers to redirect funds meant for the National Health Insurance Scheme into the consolidated account for other purposes.
The money accumulated from NHIS capping fund from 2018 is 3.399 billion but the money is nowhere to be found, he emphasized.
