The Universal Access to Healthcare Campaign (UAHCC) is demanding a restructuring of how funds are paid to the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) for distribution to National Health Insurance Scheme service providers.
[contextly_sidebar id=”oyccSbTMV12OKHC5IaFNfwCvU7fl6ary”]They are advocating that the financing mechanism should be reviewed to make payments more sustainable.
UAHCC explains that the current financing mechanism is not the best option for the scheme hence its current woes in delayed claims payments.
The group also emphasised that, it will be prudent for government to be transparent and tell Ghanaians how much it has mobilised from Ghanaians towards financing NHIA.
They added that Government should also use the funds generated from the NHIA for its intended purposes.
The NHIA is currently indebted to several health facilities to the tune of over GH¢460 million, a situation crippling its operations.
Various health facilities had in months back threatened to turn away NHIS card holders due to failure of government to pay their claims.
In an interview with Citi News on the sidelines of the May Day celebration, the Deputy National Coordinator of UAHCC, Archibald Adams indicated that if a more robust financing system is not put in place the current challenges confronting the scheme, the country will be gradually returning to the Cash and carry system.
“We are making this call because the 2.5 that every Ghanaian pays when they patronize a particular service or purchase goods is so much a resource that we don’t need government to put up a bail out strategy,” he stated.
Mr Adams noted that “As we speak the NHIA owes several health facilities across the country to the tune of GH¢460 million. People are paying premium, you and I are paying the 2.5 levy, government has not been able to tell us how much money has accrued from that levy and how much has been plowed back into the system, all we hear is that there is no money, budget allocation are late and all that.”
“One of the reason we are calling for restructuring of the financing policy is that by the Act funds are supposed to be released into the NHIA fund within three months after it has been accumulated into the government chest. But, government does not go by that provision in that provision the Act, it takes more than six months and that is why we have the problem that we are having.”
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana