The minister-designate for Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu has stated that he has the right experience to revive the ailing National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
According to him, during his time as a Deputy Minister of Finance in the Kufuor administration, having worked extensively with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health and Finance on the Act that established the NHIS and later acting as its Chief Executive Officer, he knew the workings of the Scheme and was thus the right person to salvage it.
Established under Act 650 of 2003 by the Kufuor government, the NHIS to provide basic healthcare services to persons resident in the country through mutual and private health insurance schemes, which themselves are regulated by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
Though the NHIS has improved since its establishment, it is still said to be plagued with many problems.
Addressing the Appointments Committee of Parliament during his turn at vetting on Tuesday, Mr Agyemang-Manu who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dormaa Central was o the opinion that his encounters with the NHIS has put him in a position to know the challenges confronting the scheme and if his nomination is approved, the NHIS will work again.
He further explained that one of his main tasks as the sector minister was to find sustainable funding for the NHIS in order for it to be efficient.Â
This he intended to achieve by cutting down fraud in the Ministry and implementing other strategies that "will enable us get extra funding".
"Whatever needs to be done to see to it that the scheme works will be executed", he assured.
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