The NHIS has a utilization rate of about 33 million, and a membership of 11 million persons as pointed out by a member of Parliament’s Appointments Committee, but Mr. Agyemang-Manu stressed that, the mandate of the NHIS stretched beyond membership.

[contextly_sidebar id=”K3FQ2AZJjAtNmECIGavMnFem07KlUQx0″]“The NHIA was not established to register members; so we don’t assess the activeness of the NHIA with membership numbers. We established NHIS with the objective to provide affordable accessible healthcare to the people.”

The Health Minister-nominee argued that, the quality of facilities and access to free medication were some of the indicators that could be used to effectively assess utilization.

“So if you are delivering healthcare, you are not just looking at OPD attendance because if people go and they make them pay, it is looked at as attendance. If you are talking about claims and they are not complaining; these are some of the things we can use as parameters,” Mr. Agyemang-Manu explained.

NDC didn’t ‘collapse’ NHIS

The New Patriotic Party in its 2016 manifesto held the view that the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, had collapsed the NHIS over the past eight years.

Mr. Agyemang-Manu admitted that, the use of “collapsing might be a harsh word” adding that, “I wouldn’t have, if I was writing the portion of a manifesto, used collapsed, because at least there is a presence of it and people are registering.”

But he noted that, the general sentiments of people on the scheme he had encountered, was that it had collapsed because, “the bottom line is that when people go and they ask them to come and buy their own drugs, they come home and tell us MPs the thing has collapsed.”

He also advised that discussions on the NHIS be devoid of partisan inclinations.

“This is an area where we have to take away some level of politics because together, the two sides, we are representing the people of this country… whoever makes it work, it is a credit to him, but we are all benefiting and that is why I say that let us face facts and let us take away the politics out of health insurance.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Measuring NHIS’ success by membership flawed – Agyemang-Manu appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Speaking in an interview with Citi News’ Richard Dela Sky, the PAC chairman said the law will help forestall such last minute governance processes.

“The way things are going I believe we shouldn’t leave these kind of things to discretion, so there is a need for us to enact legislation that will stop this kind of rot,” he added.

[contextly_sidebar id=”uzkLU8touqzBfwQyQ9K40ORIpKL28JUH”]Mr. Agyeman-Manu’s comment follows an uproar by the incoming New Patriotic Party government over the awarding of new contracts and recruitments by the outgoing National Democratic Congress (NDC) government after its defeat in the December 7 polls.

But the NDC administration has justified its action saying it is not against Ghana’s laws.

Mr. Agyeman-Manu noted that “in Australia they have laws; six months to the end of your term, you don’t sign certain contracts, you can’t commit the state to certain sums of money.”

He said because Ghana’s does not have such laws, any government needs what exercise “prudence” during its last days in office.

“What they [NDC] are doing, to me it is very bad and it doesn’t tally in good governance. Ten days or one month to exit where you are and you are committing the national resources to the level that we are hearing that they are committing makes the situation really awful.  There may not be any rules, regulations that will stop an outgoing government from signing any contract but it behooves on you to be prudent in the decisions and actions you take. You have one week to move away and you are committing the nation to millions of dollars.”

“The question is; are you living resources there to pay for the commitment or you are just committing expenditure for someone to come and raise money to pay? That is why I’m saying that if you don’t leave and take prudent decisions you may not be acting in the interest of the state but in your own interest,” he added.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Laws needed to curb ‘last minute contracts’ – PAC Chairman appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.