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Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is by far the best in the Sub-Saharan African Region and is considered the nation’s lifeblood of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by the year 2030.
Next year (2023), residents in Ghana will commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the NHIS which was established under Act 650 (2003), amended to Act 852 (2012).
The Scheme was launched to promote access to equitable and quality healthcare for all residents in Ghana.
As a pro-poor social intervention program, the Scheme’s primary goal is to increase affordability and accessibility to quality healthcare services, especially among the poor and most vulnerable populations.
Since its inception, there has been an exponential improvement in the health-seeking behavior of the population, as more people are seeking medical attention early and avoiding unnecessary deterioration in their medical conditions.
As of now, official statistics on the NHIS enrollment pattern indicate that the national population coverage is 54 percent and active membership has increased to over 16 million.
The Scheme’s inclusive Benefit Package covers 95 percent of health conditions in Ghana and the Benefit Package has successfully been expanded over the years.
The most recent inclusions are the four main childhood cancers, family planning, and a specialist anti-breast cancer treatment drug called Herceptin.
The NHIS is governed by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), headquartered in Accra, and has sixteen (16) administrative regional offices, 175 district offices and four (4) Claims Processing Centres (CPC) and has contracts with over four thousand (4,000) credentialled public, private, and faith-based healthcare service providers.
New financial reforms including prompt payments of Claims to healthcare providers in recent times have increased the public’s confidence in the Scheme.
In collaboration with the National Identification Authority (NIA), the NHIA seeks to adopt the use of the Ghana Card by NHIS members to access healthcare.
It is therefore imperative for holders of NHIS and Ghana cards to do the merger by simply dialing the short code *929#.
The NHIA continues to monitor and review the impact of services rendered by licensed Private Health Insurance Scheme companies in Ghana. Currently, there are thirteen (13) licensed Private Commercial Schemes and one (1) Mutual Scheme comprising Acacia Health Insurance, Ace Medical Insurance, Apex Mutual Health Insurance, Cosmopolitan Health Insurance, and Equity Health Insurance, and GAB Health Insurance.
The rest are Glico Healthcare, Metropolitan Health Insurance, NMH Nationwide Medical Insurance, Phoenix Health Insurance, Premier Health Insurance, Spectra Health Mutual Insurance, Vitality Health Insurance, and Dosh Health Insurance.
The NHIS is the vehicle and road on which Ghana’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC) drives. UHC attainment by 2030 is achievable and management is committed to the agenda.
Source: ABDUL KARIM NAATOGMAH
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