The campaign team of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has urged Ghanaians to reject attempts by the NDC to mislead them into voting for the opposition party in the 2024 general elections.
The call follows John Mahama’s claims that the Free SHS and the National Health Insurance policies were introduced by the NDC.
Dennis Miracles Aboagye, the campaign’s Director of Communication, addressed these claims during a social media show titled “The Next Chapter,” spearheaded by the campaign team. He accused the NDC of making similar claims in the 2008 election only to dismantle social interventions introduced by the John Kufuor administration.
Aboagye asserted that the National Health Insurance Policy was actually implemented by former president John Agyekum Kufuor, contrary to Mahama’s claims that the NDC piloted the policy in Damongo and Nkoranza.
He clarified that the idea of a health insurance policy in Ghana emerged because the Rawlings administration had replaced a free healthcare policy with a ‘cash and carry’ system. The challenges of this system led the Catholic Church, with community and Dutch NGO funding, to introduce a health insurance scheme in Nkoranza and Damongo.
“It is never true that the NHIS was piloted by the NDC in Nkoranza and Damongo. It was the Catholic Church in collaboration with the community supported by a non-governmental organization, to finance it.” Dennis Aboagye Miracles claimed.
He explained that the success of the scheme in Nkoranza prompted about 47 other communities to implement their forms of the National Health Insurance Scheme. This, in 2003, led the government to introduce mutual district health schemes, allowing residents to access healthcare in their registered districts.
Aboagye also disputed former President Mahama’s claims that the policy was nationalized by the late President John Evans Atta Mills. He clarified that in 2007, the government consolidated all district mutual schemes into one national health insurance scheme, providing one health insurance card for use across the country.
“What the National Health Insurance card did was that the card you use for your district was replaced and one could seek health services from anywhere across the country,” Aboagye explained.
He urged Ghanaians to be cautious of the NDC’s attempts to claim the NHIS policy, reminding them that the NDC had opposed the nationalization of the policy in 2007. Aboagye also criticized the NDC’s unfulfilled 2008 promise of a one-time premium for NHIS registration, noting that even the NDC’s current General Secretary, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, had described the promise as unrealistic.
Based on this history, Aboagye cautioned Ghanaians to be sceptical of any promises from the NDC regarding the review of the Free SHS policy, warning that the NDC might undermine the policy.
