Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress [TUC], Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah, has advocated the need for government to use workers Health Fund contributions to service the National Health Insurance Scheme’s accumulated debt of 1.2 billion cedis.
He described as a misplaced priority depositing the workers Health Fund contributions in the Consolidated Fund.
The TUC Secretary General was addressing organized labour unions in Tamale as part of a nationwide campaign to sustain the NHIS.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Ph760GnkOCLY0mNEcExgusQ3El4fFh5L”]According to him, successive governments’ failure to use the Health Fund contributions for its intended purpose has skyrocketed the NHIS debt portfolio.
“When the money is paid to SSNIT, that money goes to the consolidated fund, and we are saying that if that money is for health insurance why should it go to the consolidated fund,” he asked.
“The talk tax we are paying, part of it goes straight to the YEA. It doesn’t go to the consolidated fund. If the money is sitting in the consolidated fund and the military say they that they don’t have money for food and if you are President what will you do?”
Dr. Anthony emphasized that, “These are the reasons our service providers are sometimes not paid for one year. We will demand that once we are contributing to that fund those things should change.”
The TUC Secretary General decried organized labour’s low representation on the National Health Insurance Authority’s Board.
“As I speak to you, we have only one representative on the National Health Insurance Authority Board, that should change. These are the things we are trying to put in place to make sure that the money we contribute to the calabash, that health fund goes to serve the purpose for which it was collected.”
Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah admonished government to pay workers better salaries.
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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana