The Chief Executive Officer (CEO)of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Sylvester Mensah, says the National Health Insurance Scheme has significantly improved over the past years.
Though the NHIA owes various health providers millions of cedis, the CEO of the Authority argues that the scheme as it stands now is different from the one the NDC government inherited as there has been a sharp increase in membership and efficient structure of the scheme.
[contextly_sidebar id=”wyK2Ukq1Fyf2aBsO4dSVpqx0mmjqikNI”]The NHIA Boss, Sylvester Mensah made the assertion in an interview with Citi News on the sidelines of the campus connect program in Accra on Thursday.
He revealed that statistics as of the close of 2008 show an “active membership around 9.3 million”, adding that “by the end of December 2012, active membership had risen to about 10 million.”
According to the CEO, utilisation as of the close of 2008 was also around 10.5 million and had recently risen to a significant 29.6 million.
He believes recent figures recorded is indicative that the NHIS is faring well.
“When we talk about the scheme being different from what it use to be in the past, we are talking about the numbers, we are talking about the structure, we are talking about the system…,” he said.
Mr. Mensah was however quick to acknowledge the challenges the scheme is facing and pledged government’s resolve to address them.
“The growth in membership, the growth in membership, growth in utilisation, growth in the scheme, outweighs growth in the economy,generating some shortfalls in the funding of the scheme which we [are]currently working with government to address. We are very hopeful that the challenges that we are going through now in terms of address will be addressed sooner or later.”
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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana