Ranking Member on the Health Committee of Parliament, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has revealed that less than ten percent of the total amount collected under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) last year, has been deposited in its fund.
Mr Akandoh indicated that the presence of officials from NHIS on the floor of parliament today, April 1, 2022, revealed that government collected an amount of GHC2.056 billion in the “name” of NHIS in the year 2021. However, he explained that per the submission from the officials from the NHIS, there is some disparity between the amount collected and what has been “lodged” in the Fund.
“As part of the practices of the House, the National Health Insurance Authority is supposed to appear before us every year, especially with respect to their formula. Fortunately, today, as part of the procedure, they appeared before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health. They presented a document to us which is titled: ‘National Health Insurance Authority, National Health Insurance Fund allocation for 2022’. We checked page 10 and by their own records, the government of Ghana has collected GHC2.056 billion in the name of National Health Insurance in the year 2021… and they have released ¢127million, less than 10 per cent of the amount collected in the year 2021”.
Kwabena Mintah Akandoh
Addressing the media, Mr Akandoh equally expressed that when parliament considered the 2022 budget of which an Appropriations Act has been passed, they approved an amount of about 3.3 billion cedis. However, he indicated that during the presentation by officials from the NHIS, there were some disparity in their figures.
“Now, when you look at their formula, on page 25, they are formulating their formula around GHC2.6 billion, whiles the budget’s appropriations act has approved GHC3.3 billion. Clearly, there is some disparity. When we asked them, the response we had was that they have received instructions to cut down this budget by 30 per cent”.
Kwabena Mintah Akandoh
Finance Minister requested to clarify NHIS fund allocation
Following this, the ranking member on the health committee of parliament, Mr Akandoh, requested the presence of the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to clarify their concerns. He highlighted that parliament does not make laws for “people to sit in their office to alter them”.
“So, with these two reasons, we asked them [NHIS officials] to go back and come with the Minister responsible for Finance because the law of the National Health Insurance Act is clear, that when you collect these monies you are supposed to lodge it into the NHIS Fund within 30 days after the collection”.
Kwabena Mintah Akandoh
Mr Akandoh indicated that the NHIA is expected to appear before parliament every “six months to account for the money” within the year. Following this, he iterated that the committee has asked the officials from the National Health Insurance Authority to “go back and bring the Minister responsible for health, the Minister responsible for finance, to explain why they have not lodged the GHC2.056 billion into the National Health Insurance Fund”.
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