Money is no more an impediment to good health – Health minister

Health Minister, Sherry Ayitey has praised strides made by the NHIS in working to create equal access to healthcare for all residents in Ghana.

The minister said the times where only the rich could afford good healthcare is gone, stressing that: “money is no more an impediment to good health. All it takes is to join the NHIS.”

She stated that children, pregnant women and Ghanaians in general no longer have to die because they do not have money to pay for healthcare.

The minister was also impressed by measures instituted by the NHIA to enhance efficiency in managing the NHIS. She said the establishment of the Claims Processing Centre and a raft of other initiatives that have been put in place to ensure managerial discipline are laudable.

The minister made the remarks when she commissioned the newly built Greater Accra regional office of the NHIA at Shiashie near Legon on Friday.

The minister mentioned that this “year marks the 10th anniversary of the enactment of the law that established the NHIS.” According to her, “after several years of planning and piloting the concept of health insurance in a few districts around the country, the old National Health Insurance Act, 2003 (Act 650) was passed, giving birth to 145 District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes.”

Madam Ayitey said in celebrating the achievements of the NHIS, “we must also be mindful of the responsibility this bestows on us. The NHIS belongs to every Ghanaian. Indeed it was borne out of local demand. It is home-grown, designed to suit our own needs and largely funded domestically. We must, therefore, guard this innovative social protection policy jealously and ensure that it succeeds.”

She commended the staff and management of the NHIA for their hard work, and urged them to further develop new ways of making the scheme and the people it serves healthier and stronger.

Madam Ayitey also toured some facilities and installations of the NHIA including the Claims Processing Centre and the Call Centre.

Chief Executive of the NHIA, Sylvester A. Mensah who led the minister to commission the project, said the Greater Accra regional office is one of ten built around the country in all regions. According to him, the NHIA believes that the construction of the regional offices, which has been carried out in the last four years, would be a major cost saver because the Authority will not have to rent offices anymore at the regional level.

“When we took over the management of the NHIS in 2009, there were no regional offices rightly owned by the NHIA. The scheme generally operated in rented premises, right from the head office through the regional offices to the district offices. As we speak today, we have regional offices and the cost of rentals has been eliminated into the future,” Mr Mensah said.

He also mentioned that the NHIA remains committed to delivering quality service to its stakeholders. Mr Mensah said the NHIA will soon commence instant issuance of biometric ID cards, which will greatly improve the ID card management mechanism of the Authority.