Foreign Aid Sustaining NHIS - MP

THE NATIONAL Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) came under heavy criticism on Tuesday from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Asawase, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak, who claimed the Scheme had failed the people and the Government was naively relying on foreign aid to sustain the health care system.

Alhaji Mubarak accused the NPP government of alienating women and children by implementing the NHIS, which was a replacement scheme for the NDC’s ‘Cash and Carry’ policy but involved an insurance levy of 2.5 percent, providing a barrier to aid for those in need.

The Asawase MP further accused the ruling NPP of mismanaging international aid, specifically the sum of £42 million recently received from the United Kingdom, channeling it all into health care rather than sectors of the economy, and reproached the Government for allowing the aid to become the backbone of the health care system.

He stated that if the NHIS had performed in the manner that was expected then President Kufuor would have been under no pressure to secure international aid to prevent a health care crisis in which women and children would have been hardest hit.

HYPERLINK "http://www.ghana.gov.gh/asamoah_boateng" Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, Minister of Information and National Orientation, challenged the NDC MP by reminding Parliament that the majority of international aid received came with provisions attached as to how they should be utilised.

Furthermore, Mrs. Gifty Kusi, MP for Tarkwa-Nsuaem, praised President Kufuor for maintaining the NHIS, which she said was a crucial solution to the high maternal and infant mortality rate (MMR, IMR) which spiraled due to the lack of affordable and accessible health care under the NDC and is currently well off in its Millennium Development Goal target.

However, the MP for Tarkwa-Nsuaem admitted that despite the improvements in antenatal and postnatal care along with the expected reductions in MMR and IMR, other areas of the health sector needed significant investment, especially oncology units.

Citing improvements in current projects, she revealed that the MTN Ghana Foundation had offered to finance the refurbishment of theatres and wards at the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital, donating $600,000 to fulfill its corporate and social responsibility, adding that she hoped this was the start of further investment in the sector.

With the expectation of another $6 million of aid annually to the sum of $90 million, the NPP MP hoped that resources for teams in the Ghana Health Service and Family Planning Units would be included in the distribution.

In an unrelated development, the Deputy Minister for Health, Gladys N. Ashitey, answered questions on the upgrading and provision of residential accommodation for various health centres in Biakoye and North Tongu.

The Ministry of Health, despite funding from the Government and the National Health Insurance Fund, estimated completion in 2020.