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The National Health Insurance Authority has assured subscribers, stakeholders and the entire nation the scheme is active, growing and will be effectively managed to ensure its sustainability.

The Authority says so far new policies to ensure efficiency, reduce leakages and corruption among other initiatives have substantially save tens of millions of cedis that have been channeled into claim payments and other services to cushion the Authority in view of the growing financial constraints.

Deputy Director of Communications of the NHIA, Serlom Adonoo was speaking to Joy News following its expose that confirmed the NHIS is functional contrary to false claims by the opposition NPP that it has collapsed.

The JOY FM report which also quoted independent assessment report by credible organizations has generated public debate first on the lies NPP has told over the past years, and the need for more of such independent work by the media to make the 2016 electioneering campaign issue based.

He said even though the scheme is healthy there are a number of proposals on the table to make it better and more sustainable.

“What has been done to make sure it sustainable into the future is the Institution of the NHIS review which was inaugurated by the President last year and the committee is chaired by one eminent and globally acknowledged economist called Chris AtIm. They are almost finished and will present their initial report soon. The review team had the mandate to propose reforms to make it more sustainable, more efficient,and more accountable and improve user satisfaction. So some of the points raised from the review is that we provide primary health for everyday irrespective of the status of the person as a member or not of the national health insurance scheme. The reason is that everybody pays tax and so if you are paying 2.5 percent VAT then it only makes sense that everybody is made to access the scheme and that will help accelerate the country’s drive to achieve universal health coverage. The committee also was of the view that Maternal and Child care be made free across the board and few other things that the committee pointed out. What we are doing is to restructure the scheme to make sure the resources that accrue are applied the best way possible so that everybody on the scheme can get some minimum health care package covered. Minimum package meaning what is very prevalent and what is commonly reported like malaria About 70 percent of the people do not pay and the premium is between 28 to 30 cedis for the whole year for all the diseases covered by the scheme and so the committee is of the view that arrangement would have to be looked again t so that those who can pay premium are made to pay the state will take care of them government will come in so that the scheme can remain sustainable and relevant to the needs of the people” he clarifies.

He dismissed claims that the scheme has collapsed. He stated that there are challenges with the scheme just like any other institution or organization but there is no way the NHIS will fail or collapse as being speculated.

“The scheme just like any institution has its own fair share of challenges and so they are not new per say. The challenges were anticipated in the design of the scheme right from the onset.An ILO report which was authored even before the scheme took off ground in march 2005 said that the scheme per its current funding source was going to run for 5 to 6 years after which new source will have to be identified to make it sustainable it. So we have traveled that path and the scheme is 13 yrs old and it’s still running which tells you that there is something that the NHIA an institution is doing right to keep the scheme running. So the challenges were known and anticipated” he said

“Reports of the collapse of the scheme were reported way back and we are still here. It’s working and getting better since 2007. So it appears it is something which is just thrown in for whatever reason but if you look at the figures, you will notice that the fears have no basis. The NHIS is social protection program and everywhere in the world are not sustainable in perpetuity. What happens is that every now and then you have to review what we called the sustainability regime for example for the next five years and it keeps being redefined and that is what we have started doing” he adds.

Sometime in June this year the President’s Technical Committee tasked to review the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has recommended a guaranteed universal primary healthcare basket for all residents in Ghana.

The committee has also proposed that, given the strides the country has made in maternal and child mortality and morbidity, a package of maternal and child healthcare should also be guaranteed, to consolidate those gains. This is the first ever major review in the 13-year history of the scheme.

The proposal which categorizes the benefit of the NHIS into a two-tier system, thus guaranteeing primary secondary and tertiary healthcare, states that NHIS cards will only be required when seeking care outside the defined primary healthcare basket which essentially are conditions in the second tier of the proposed redesign.