The Minority in Parliament has accused the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of deliberately accumulating arrears into the future by paying very little to cover current claims on the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
The government, he said, has consistently failed to transmit National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) funds collected from Ghanaians into the NHIF.
This, he said, has led to the Fund resorting to disinvestment and withdrawals from its investment fund to deal with current liabilities.
Addressing the media in Parliament on Tuesday, May 10, 2022 on challenges bedeviling the NHIS, Ranking Member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, stated this has resulted in a situation in which an investment fund that had GHc104.32 million as closing balance for 2014 reduced to as low as GH¢80.13million in 2020 with interest following similar trend of reduction from GH¢21.7million to GH¢5.18million in 2020,” he said.
He argued the GH¢104.32million closing balance for 2014 could at the time address 1.25 months of claims should the fund rely on its investments only without addition.
He said, “Today same cannot be said of the fund. The balance of 80.13 million can at best cover claims of less than a month or 3 weeks.”
“If the depreciation of the Cedi between 2014 and now is factored in, the true value of the investment fund can be said to be even worse.”
The government, he said, is paying less and less for current claims on the fund while disinvestment is reducing closing balances to the extent that should there be any shock, the fund will find it very difficult to cove claims.
“In 2020 out of the GH¢2.337 billion Ghanaians paid as NHIL and SSNIT contributions for the fund, only GH¢790.29m or 31% was released to address claims for the year (2020). 2019 figures were GH¢721.09m out of GHS1,262.92 or 57%. 2018 figures were GH¢506.80 out of GH¢1,579.49m or 32%.”
“Since Nana Akufo-Addo took over as President an average of 41.2% of collections due to the NHIS has been released compared to 73.25% under President Mahama.”
“How anyone can expect the scheme to pay its providers and have funds to invest is a question only the President through his Finance Minister can answer,” he said.
The Ranking Member lamented that the mismanagement of the NHIS is affecting the survival of health facilities that offer treatment to national health insurance cardholders.
He disclosed, “As of the end of March 2022, service providers were owed over GH¢2.5bn due to non-payment of claims filed as far back as July 2021. If you consider the fact that we are experiencing a hyperinflationary period with March inflation year-on-year being reported to have inched closer to 20%, one wonders how service providers who are owed as far back as last year are supposed to manage to keep their businesses afloat.”
“Ghanaians are losing hope in the NHIS contrary to what the Akufo-Addo government wants us to believe. The average use of the scheme or Average Encounter per member per year has reduced from 2.87 a year in 2016 to 2.75 times a year in 2021 due to several factors including the fact that most private service providers are not prepared to offer services to cardholders.”
NHIS cards, he said, are now reduced to being used for primary or basic services at most health facilities, which is clearly expressed in the average claim per member reducing from GH¢97.70 in 2016 to GHS69.02 in 2021.
Mr. Akandoh stated that cardholders no longer have faith that they will receive good service should they use their cards for secondary or tertiary health services.
Source: Mypublisher24.com
