NHIA Gets Health Insurance Learning Centre

Following the success story of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) over the years, Ghana will soon become a home to a Health Insurance Knowledge Centre aimed at providing expertise and training on health insurance related issues to many countries and institutions across the world.

The idea to set-up the institution was put forward by the NHIA with support from its development partners both in Africa and Europe.

The essence of the centre will be to make use of the rich knowledge base of the Ghana’s NHIS which has become a global model for health insurance and widely cited by many academics as a worthy example of social health insurance.
The centre which would be open to all interested persons and institutions across the world will also deepen Ghana’s current position as a leading global model of social health insurance.

Addressing the media in Accra last week, the Chief Executive Officer of the NHIA, Sylvester A. Mensah said the establishment of the centre came up due to the inexistence of a ‘well defined and structured academic discipline for social health insurance.’
He expressed optimism that the centre will lead in providing a structured system where ‘we could have theory, research and practice combined to ensure we develop the needed human capacity for running health insurance systems.’
According to Mr. Mensah, the global centre which will be located in Ghana is to provide the opportunity for knowledge sharing and acquisition within the context of health insurance.
He mentioned that the forum was also to build capacity and to sell the idea of a health insurance learning centre to see how best it can be supported and financed.
Dr Nicholas Tweneboah one of the consultants working on the feasibility of the learning centre project, indicated that the centre will be important in bridging the health insurance knowledge capacity gaps that exist in many countries.
Dr. Tweneboah said though the need to have such a learning facility was not in doubt, the form and scope required to facilitate this has not been defined.
He was grateful to PharmAccess Foundation, the Uganda Martyrs University, Cordaid and the Health insurance fund for providing support to the feasibility study.
The forum drew participants from Uganda, Nigeria, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.