I’ll clear NHIS debt in 18 months - Akufo-Addo

President Nana Akufo-Addo has said his government has started clearing the indebtedness of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and is hopeful all arrears owed service providers by the Scheme would be cleared within a year and a half.

The NHIS as of March 2017 owed providers GH1.2 billion.

Service providers threatened to cut off supplies and returning to the cash-and-carry system, a situation that risked putting health delivery at risk since over 11 million subscribers rely on the social intervention programme to access medical services.

Speaking to the Ghanaian community in Belgium on Tuesday, June 6, as part of his visit to the European country ahead of the meetings of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals Advocates Group of Eminent Personalities, Nana Akufo-Addo said his government has found it necessary to find the money to stop a total collapse of the scheme.

“The scheme has been threatened by mismanagement and by huge indebtedness. We are now having to liquidate systematically the arrears so that the service providers can be encouraged to provide services for NHIS card holders. I am hoping that within 18 months, all the arrears of the NHIS would have been settled so that we can have a secure future for the scheme,” he said.