Govt will soon come out with L.I on NHIS

The government will soon come out with a legislative instrument (L.I) that will specify among others the legal operational framework of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Mr Yaw Adjei-Duffour, the Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, said on Wednesday.

He said the preparation of the L.I is still at the ministerial level and "we need very constructive suggestions from both the formal and informal sectors in order to make it more attractive and acceptable."

Mr Adjei-Duffour was addressing the close of the third annual peer review conference of Ghana Network of Mutual Health Organisations (GNEMHO), which was under the theme, "The National Health Insurance Act 650: The challenges and the way forward for Mutual Health Organizations (MHOs) Movement in Ghana".

Representatives of Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), World Bank, German Technical Development (GTZ), World Health Organisation, International Labour Organisation and the Clergy, among others, attended the three-day conference. The Conference was aimed at strengthening the knowledge of participants in the organisation of the National Health Insurance Scheme to ensure its successful operation.

Mr Adjei-Duffour said the Network is a force to reckon with and as the government expected a lot of input from it is his expectation that the conference would come out with a communiqu? that would serve as a good reference point for the drafters of the legislative instrument.

He suggested that they factor the threat of HIV/AIDS in the country and the assistance people living with the pandemic could derive from the National Health Insurance Scheme.

The Deputy Minister allayed the fears of MHOs with the passage of the National Health Insurance Act (Act 650) with the explanation that MHOs would have better leverage and a legal backing to operate.

''The law places you in a better position than in the past when most of you were considered as mere social movements with freedom of association.'' More/

Mr Adjei-Duffour said another benefit that MHOs would derive from Act 650 is that their accountability to the state and the people would increase, "thereby giving you the right to sue and be sued like any other corporate entity in the course of your operations."

''This I think will make MHOs more viable as social partners imbued with likeness of mind with government to make health service in the country more affordable and accessible.''

On ownership of the District Insurance Health Schemes, the Deputy Minister explained that the government would facilitate and monitor the process but the ownership of the various health insurance schemes "shall be vested in the people". District Chief Executives are to ensure that the district schemes operate successfully, he said, and debunked the notion by some people to tag the involvement of DCEs as politicisation of the whole process".

The Deputy Minister said the involvement of DCEs constituted the political will of the government to ensure the success of the Scheme, adding that it was not an imposition by the President to unduly interfere in the management of the scheme at the district level.

The conference said in a nine-point communiqu? that recognizing that health service providers are deemed indispensable in actualising the ideals of Act 650, the government must ensure equity in resource allocations. The conference called on the government "to explore and support the phenomenon of partnerships with MHOs, which are both collaborative and complementary, for improving equity, access, effectiveness and efficiency of the health care system in the country."

We are tied of token interventions by development partners – MP

Mrs. Harriet Tetteh-Kpodar, NDC - Awutu-Senya, Wednesday described a nine-million US dollar Canadian support for African Parliaments as a token intervention and urged development partners of African countries to be more serious with their support for Africa.

She noted that there were at least 20 African countries practicing democracy and had parliaments, adding, "we are tied of these token interventions from our development partners because at the end of the day, such small amounts do next to nothing in solving our numerous logistical, research, administrative and other problems."

Mrs. Tetteh-Kpodar made the remark when she seconded a motion for the adoption of a report on the African-Canadian Parliamentary Strengthening Program Meeting Held in Accra from March 23 - 25 and in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia between May 18 and 23, this year.She said, "our development partners must not only join us to talk about our problems - they must join to find permanent and not just temporary solutions to such problems."

In the motion, Mr. Steve S. Akorli, NDC-Ho East, leader of the Parliamentary delegation to the two meetings, said following the presentation of the NEPAD Agenda by African leaders to the G8 countries in Genoa three years ago and a follow-up discussion in Canada in June 2001, Canada has created a 500-million dollar fund for Africa in pursuit of the NEPAD agenda.

He said out of the 500 million dollars, nine million dollars has been set aside to provide technical assistance to African Parliamentary Networks and associations in the areas of capacity building for increased financial accountability and oversight, increased participation of women in politics and strengthening parliaments in anti-corruption measures.

The nine million dollars, he said would also cover support in the areas of enhancement of public access to government and improvement of parliamentary administration as well provision of training in the skill of monitoring activities in the Poverty Reduction Strategies