Dr Richard Anane, the Member of Parliament for Nyiaeso, has appealed to the government to urgently provide funding for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to prevent the system from imminent collapse.
Dr Anane, who spoke on the floor of parliament on Wednesday, said the NHIS was in danger of collapsing if funds were not immediately channeled into strengthening the scheme to make it more beneficial to the health care delivery of the country.
He was contributing to a motion for the adoption of the report of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the performance audit report of the Auditor-General on the management of claims by the NHIS.
He said it was time the country prioritized its needs and focus its meager resources into critical interventions that would ameliorate the vital needs of Ghanaians.
Dr Anane, who has since 2011 been advocating for an increase in the NHIS Levy to make it more efficient in addressing the health needs of Ghanaians, expressed regret that the Ministry of Finance was not making timely releases of the NHIA�s allocations thus making the work of the Scheme difficult.
He argued that the government failed to utilize the opportunity to increase the NHIS Levy by 1% when it recently increased the Value Added Tax (VAT) by 2.5%.
�The Government had a good opportunity of increasing the health insurance fund by adding 1% of the 2.5% of the recent increase in VAT which I have been calling for the past three years for a 1% increment in the National Insurance Levy,� he said.
The lawmaker disagreed with government for allocating the 2.5 percent increase in the VAT to infrastructural development instead of allocating one percent of that figure to increase the National Health Insurance Levy, even when the oil revenue accruals to the State had a component to fund infrastructure development, insisting that the government should prioritize he needs of the country.
Dr Anane said the Ministry of Finance did not appreciate what needed to be done to engender confidence in the Scheme and wondered why the Ministry unduly held onto NHIA funds thus making them unable to meet claims by the Health Service Providers (HSPs).
The MP urged the Ministry to ensure that the NHIS received their funds to avoid the current situation the scheme had found itself in.
The audit was to ascertain whether the structures put in place and activities undertaken by the NHIA are ensuring that funds allocated for claims settlement are used beneficially for the intended purpose.
The report highlighted that the NHIA was seriously confronted with cash flow challenges as a result of delay in statutory releases from the Government (National Health Insurance Levies and SSNIT contributions) among many others.
The Committee recommended that the Ministry of Finance should make timely releases of the National Health Insurance Levies and SSNIT contributions to the NHIA with due regard to the National Health Insurance Act, 2003 (Act 650) in order not to affect the operations of the Health Service Providers (HSPs).
It also recommended that the NHIA restructure its operations to ensure an efficient and efficient claims management within the NHIS and also to ensure that funds misappropriated are fully recovered with interest.
In the 2013 government budgeted GH�1.128.76 million for the NHIA for the fiscal year. But only GH�831 million of that amount was realized out of which some Ghc600 million has been released as at February 4, 2014, leaving a deficit of over Ghc500 million.
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