NHIS is falling apart – NDC

General News on Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Source: Graphic.com.gh

2019-04-17

According to the NDC, the truth is that the NHIS is in a deplorable state and is out of breath and currently owes service providers in Ghana's 16 regions, covering a period of nearly 12 months. landed in most health facilities in distress.

"Unlike the flowery and rosy picture that the president continues to brush whenever possible on the health of the NHIS, the fact is that the NHIS is about to collapse," NDC said.

Contested claim

The NDC also said it took note of the president's persistent claims that the government had settled a total of 1.2 billion GH ¢ in arrears inherited from the Mahama government.

"We wish to state unequivocally that this badertion is unfounded by the facts. After the Association of Private Clinics and public hospital leaders disputed this claim, one would have thought that the President will give up peddling this obvious deception, "NDC said.

The NDC maintained that the indisputable evidence contained in the 2017 NHIS Fund distribution formula presented to Parliament by the Minister of Health indicated that total arrears amounted to 425.79 GH ¢ in December 2016 and that these statements completely contradicted the presidential claims.

The NDC said the unprecedented success of the NHIS resulted in a steady decline in the number of active members of the system over the past two years, explaining that with a national coverage of 39% in 2016, coverage had has been reduced to 37% in 2016. 2017 and 35 in 2018.

"Statistics show the loss of confidence of Ghanaians towards the NHIS and highlight the terrible difficulties in which the government has plunged into this scheme," said the NDC.

Ironic of spending

Ironically, the NDC pointed out that, although the number of active members of the system has decreased significantly, the number of indemnities paid to the staff of the system was increasing.

According to the party, on a compensatory payment of 115 million GH ¢ in 2016, the amount had increased to 132 million GH ¢, 168 million GH ¢ and 211.28 million GH ¢ in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

The party also observed what it described as the worrying trend regarding government rejections to the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), which had declined significantly as the government continued to collect more revenue. from the NHIS.

The NDC said that although best practice dictated the use of 75% to 80% of the funds accumulated to fund the program, the government currently used only 60.64% of the funds accumulated under the program. the NHIF for the intended purposes.

"This indicates a misuse of NHIF funds by the government and we can talk about several such cases. As the program continues to struggle, more than 300 million GH ¢ should be spent on ICT and another 5 million GH ¢ are dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in 2019. It is about 39, a complete aberration in relation to the main objective of the strategy. funds.