The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has refuted recent media reports suggesting Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is on the verge of collapse due to a lack of funding.
The Authority maintains that “the NHIA has consistently paid healthcare facilities an average of GHS150 million every 30 days, especially over the past two years. A phenomenon that has not happened since the inception of the scheme some twenty years ago.”
In a press statement signed by the Corporate Affairs Directorate of NHIA, it strongly disapproves of the media narrative that seeks to create an impression of a collapsing NHIS.
The statement comes after a Ghanaweb.com story on November 22nd with the tagline “the NHIS almost collapsing, stay off the NHIL levy, Dormaahene says as he threatens legal action.”
“We wish to state unequivocally that the impression created by the said story is inaccurate and unfortunate,” the NHIA statement read. “Millions of Ghanaians continue to depend on the NHIS to provide access to healthcare.”
The Authority said that while it appreciates the Chief’s call for the government to provide the full National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) to the NHIA, no government during the Fourth Republic has ever provided the NHIA with all the NHIL collected, although it is enshrined in law, a situation that could be improved upon.
The statement added that evidence of monthly claims payment can be found on the Authority’s website (www.nhis.gov.gh/payments) and encouraged the media to find out the real situation that exists in the healthcare facilities and not to paint a picture that is far from the truth.
