Dr. Kweku Afriyie: I Wonder Why MPs Are Given GHc3600 Quarterly From The NHIS Fund

Former Health Minister under ex-president Kufour�s administration, Dr. Kweku Afriyie, has chastised Parliamentarians for receiving an amount of GHc3600 each, every three months from the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Coffers. �It is a deviation from the core functions of the scheme,� he stated. According to him; �the Members of Parliament (MP) did not think through this issue very well before putting this thing in place. MPs are law makers so I would have to be careful but it beats my mind as to why they would do this�. The Minister in Kufour Administration who oversaw the introduction of the NHIS, which was introduced to eliminate the �cash and carry system�, Dr. Kweku Afriyie, made it clear in an interview with Adom FM that he is disappointed in the fact that such an amount is paid to the legislature and more especially the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs in who began drawing the funds when they were in power. �What do they (MPs) know about health that informed the decision to pay those monies directly for them to spend? �MPs are the least efficient to use that kind of money,� he argued. Dr. Kweku Afriyie�s criticism of the Parliamentarians over the quarterly payment made to them from the National Health Insurance levy, which he believes is contributing to the collapse of the scheme, comes on the back of reports that the scheme is heavily indebted to service providers and the withdrawal of services to the scheme�s card holders by the Christian Health Association of Ghana.