Former Minister of Health and Member of Parliament, Dr Richard Anane has charged the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to submit a draft to Parliament asking for an increase in the VAT allocation for the Authority.
“One per cent of VAT cannot sustain this important and significant development accelerator,” he stressed.
The former Minister for Health made these known at the maiden Policy Dialogue held at the Centre for Universal Health Coverage (CUHC) under the auspices of the University of Professional Studies dubbed ‘Universal Health Coverage (UHC) dialogues.’
Dr Richard Anane, who was one of the panellists, blamed the problem facing the NHIS partly on the management of the capitation system.
He was hopeful that a national committee would soon be set up to address issues facing NHIA in order to avert a collapse of the scheme.
The government is working out a strategy for a bailout of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which is currently having challenges in paying claims from health facilities.
The scheme owes over GH¢460 million and the government is working hard to ensure that the debt is paid.
The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Victor Asare Bampoe, assured stakeholders and the general public that government was working on a strategy to address the problem of claims payment.
Dr Bampoe also noted that not only was government working out a strategy, but taking a critical look at the scheme and remodelling it to ensure its sustainability.
He said the scheme had come to stay and, therefore, there was the need for all stakeholders to come up with suggestions for its sustainability.
The panel members arrived at a consensus that the scheme was facing serious challenges, and called for measures and a new design system that would make it resilient.
They warned that the scheme was a national asset, and called for the blame game card to be tossed aside and all energies and expertise directed at bettering the scheme.
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