NDC Group: NHIA Boss Must Go� He Is A "Failure, Burden And Liability"

A pro-NDC pressure group by name Alliance for the Empowerment of NDC Constituency Branch Executives, is demanding the removal of the CEO of the NHIA, Mr. Sylvester Mensah, for superintending over what they claim to be a scheme without proactiveness and strategic measures. The group, led by their chairman Ebenezer Arkutu has called on President Mahama to axe Sylvester Mensah from the scheme because of the latter�s inability to show quality leadership which could make it possible for the NDC to achieve the policy vision of one-term premium payment. Mr. Ebenezer Arkutu also scoffed at Mr. Mensah�s claim in an interview with Peacefmonline.com, that Ghana�s Health Insurance Scheme as it stands now under his watch, is ranked higher than that of the United States of America and United Kingdom. In an earlier interview Sylvester Mensah granted Okay FM, he asserted that though Ghana�s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has suffered certain challenges since its inception, the scheme is ranked higher and better than that of the United Kingdom and the United States of America. According to him, the NDC administration has improved upon the existing system tremendously and has made the scheme, the �toast of international community�. Several countries, according to him have now come to Ghana to learn how efficiently our health scheme operates. "In fact the National Health Insurance Scheme as it operates today is more efficient than the system in the US and the system in the UK. We are one of the leading National Health Insurance models in the world...that is not to say we don�t have challenges and have been able to eliminate all our inefficiencies,� he said in an interview with Peacefmonline.com. In a swift attempt to debunk Mr. Mensah�s claim, Mr. Arkutu noted that despite the massive infrastructural investments and resources available to the CEO of NHIA boss, �he has woefully failed to provide leadership to realize our dream of one-time premium policy� and � failed to send the scheme to the rural�urban poor families�. Speaking on behalf of the group, Mr. Arkutu also claimed that Sylvester Mensah had become an �armchair� Chief Executive Officer who gave the NPP a chance to campaign against the NDC during the 2012 general elections by referring to the NDC�s promise on the NHIS, as a spectacular �failure�.