Managing Editor of the �Insight� newspaper, Kwesi Pratt, says he is saddened at attempts by the New Patriotic Party to engage in polemics after the party's Presidential Candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo asserted that the cash and carry system is back because the National Health Insurance Scheme has collapsed.
Mr Pratt contends the NPP flagbearer was clearly not abreast with facts on the ground when he made those pronouncements on the alleged collapse of the NHIS.
Taking his turn at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Presidential Debate Evening Encounter on Tuesday, August 21, 2012, the NPP leader recounted how a Voltarian told him of the shortcomings of the NHIS.
�Esinam told me in Vakpo, in the Volta Region, that her problem was the collapsing National Health Insurance Scheme. She said, �NHIS egblen!� Nana Addo said at the IEA Encounter.
According to Nana Addo, �the people of this country have to be healthy, if we are to make any meaningful progress in nation-building. The last NPP government introduced the National Health Insurance Scheme to remove the constant fear of falling ill under the inhumane Cash & Carry system. It has been painful to watch the NDC government try its best to collapse the NHIS, whilst struggling to implement their unrealistic one-time premium promise. Today, the fear of getting sick is back. The NHIS has been degraded and Cash & Carry is back.
Fellow citizens, we will revive and restore confidence in the NHIS. Our goal is to achieve universal coverage of the NHIS for all Ghanaians. The NPP will spend more on public-health education and primary healthcare.ďż˝
But speaking in an interview on Radio Gold, the senior journalist said Nana Addo�s statement was contradictory to earlier claims made on the same platform by Hon. (Dr.) Richard Winfred Anane, a former Minister of Health in the erstwhile Kufuor administration, who is reported to have stated that �the scheme is working� but facing mounting challenges.
�I have been listening to the debate and I feel very sad that such a debate is becoming dependent on the play of words. Whether the scheme is collapsing or has collapsed and so on�and what it means. I feel very�very sad that we have come to this level. My observation first is that Dr. Richard Anane is saying something substantially different from what the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party said at the IEA encounter. What Dr. Richard Anane is saying is that the scheme has not collapsed, the scheme is working and that those who are employing the scheme resolve their health problems and so on admit that the scheme is working. He is however saying that the scheme has challenges and I have no difficulties with that because there is no institution anywhere in the world which does not have challenges.�
�All the political parties including the New Patriotic Party have challenges; it doesn�t mean that the parties have collapsed. So Dr. Anane�s assertion that the scheme has challenges is interesting, it is welcome and we may want to examine that. However, it is not true that Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party did not say that the scheme has collapsed. He was empathic that the scheme has collapsed and if you consider the fact that he made the statement that cash and carry was back; now if cash and carry is back, then the scheme has collapsed,� Mr Pratt said.
Thee newspaper editor urged the NPP to avoid being polemic and stop playing on words and "look at the substanceďż˝ since the scheme has not collapsed and subscription level has increased.
The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was established under Act 650 of 2003 by the Government of Ghana to provide basic healthcare services to persons resident in the country through mutual and private health insurance schemes. The District Mutual, Private Mutual and Private Commercial Schemes are regulated by the National Health Insurance Council (NHIC).
NHIS is funded with Premiums from subscribers, 2ďż˝% National Health Insurance Levy, 2ďż˝% Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), deductions from the formal sector, funds from Government of Ghana (GoG) to be allocated by Parliament and returns from investment.
Source: Chris Joe Quaicoe/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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