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Tamale, Ghana – Chief Executive Officer of the NHIA, Dr Samuel Annor, has implored citizens, leadership and members of Ghana’s Trades Union Congress to protect and defend the country’s ailing NHIS from political influence.
According to Dr Annor, it was imperative that Ghanaians and for that matter the country’s labour unions owned the NHIS, made their yearly contributions and demand of government to fulfill its part of the contribution so that the scheme could be sustainable enough to take care of everyone’s health.
“Now that we’re being told by the government in power that our health is important, let us not let this opportunity go by. Let us put the laws and rules that will take politics out of the NHIS or our insurance forever and for good.
“Let us own the scheme. We as workers, we as citizens of this country, let us own the NHIS. Anything that leads the insurance scheme to political influence or any influence or any capture by some group of people or anything that has to do with it, we must defend the scheme with our might, our strength and our sweat”, Dr Annor made the call when he addressed members and leadership of the various labour unions in Tamale on Tuesday.
The CEO of the NHIA is on a nationwide tour to seek the views and suggestions of union members on how the Authority can build a very sustainable scheme. He is being accompanied by the Secretary General of the TUC Dr Anthony Yaw Baah and other officers of the Authority.
With over 11 million registered members, Ghana’s insurance scheme is heavily indebted to hundreds of hospitals and other health facilities as well as service providers and contractors to a tune of over 1.2 billion cedis.
Dr Annor admitted that the health insurance was currently not doing well, stressing the fact that “as an insurance scheme, apart from paying all your bills, you’re supposed to have a reserve for six months so that should any catastrophe happen you can absorb it. But now, we have a scheme that has got zero reserve and owe people 1.2 billion cedis.”
The Secretary General of the TUC, Dr Baah told the gathering of union members that, top on his agenda was to ensure that the country’s health insurance and social security worked very effectively and efficiently before he leaves office.
While the NHIA wanted the Ghanaian worker to pay more to ensure sustainability of the scheme, he also proposed that apart from having only one representative on the Board of the Authority, in each of the remaining sub-committees, there should also be a labour union representative to ensure judicious use of resources.
He said Norway for instance which had the best health system in the world, taxed her citizens as much as 40% or more, and if Ghanaians also wanted to have a similar system, then they should be willing to pay more.
Meanwhile, the tour of the NHIA Boss is supposed to end by February 13. So far, Dr Samuel Annor and his team have been to Bolgatanga and Tamale. The meeting in Tamale brought together members of the Public Sector Workers Union, Ghana National Association of Teachers, National Association of Graduate Teachers, Coalition of Concerned Teachers and the Civil And Local Government Staff Association of Ghana and among others.
By Savannahnews
