The Dormaahene, Osagyefo Osaedeeyo Agyemang Badu II, has expressed worry over the government’s delay in payment of health service providers from the health insurance levy.
He is blaming the situation on the inefficient use of the funds generated from the levy.
Speaking at the 3rd Annual General Conference of the Private Health Facilities Association of Ghana (PHFAoG) in Sunyani, the Dormaahene warned that he would seek court interpretation on the use of the health insurance levy meant to offer effective healthcare for the people.
“I plead with the government to avoid touching the NHI levy. They should give it to the National Health Insurance Authority to enable them to pay service providers like the Private Health providers”, he admonished and further said the role of service providers would be ineffective if the money from the levy gets locked up elsewhere.
“I am pleading. Ghanaians would have to look at this issue very well because it is a worry to all of us”, he said.
Osaedeeyo Agyemang Badu II, who is also the President of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs, warned that it would get to a time that he would seek legal interpretation on the NHI levy.
“I will go to court. And I will ask the court if the NHI levy could be used for unintended purposes before giving it to the people and institutions mandated by law for the healthcare of the people”, he stressed, added that when it happens, ‘No one should say, I, Agyemang Badu likes to create issues, but rather I want to ensure healthcare improves and service providers also improve”.
Dormaahene, however, appreciated the government’s efforts to improve healthcare through Agenda 111 and urged successive governments to ensure the projects under the policy are completed.
The 3rd Annual General Conference of PHFAoG, in Sunyani, was on the theme, “Addressing the human resource gap in the private health facilities towards achieving universal health coverage, the role of PHFAoG and the State”.
Dr Samuel Kwame Buabeng-Frimpong, President of PHFAoG, in his address at the conference, said the private facilities’ contribution in complementing the government’s efforts to achieve Universal Health Coverage is exceptional.
He, however, bemoaned the challenge of the high turnover of health staff at the various private health facilities and appealed for the support of the government.
He said, “It is sad to note that our Association’s crusade to get the government to balance the scale of staff distribution to ensure maximum efficiency in private health provision has not yielded any of the desired outcomes”.
Dr. Buabeng-Frimpong noted that “considering our quest for universal access to quality healthcare, I would want to, once again, make a passionate appeal to the government to extend its kind gesture of posting health staff to private health facilities”.
Dr Buabeng-Frimpong stressed the association’s strong opposition to the practice of co-payment at the health facilities and “would wish the government addresses the root causes of the problem to eliminate it once and for all”.
He stressed the need to look at the adoption of survival strategies by the facilities as a national problem that deserves an urgent solution.
The popular view looks at private health facilities as key culprits in the practice of copayment, but Dr Buabeng-Frimpong said the preliminary survey by the NHIA with support from the USAID revealed that they are the least perpetrators.
Bono Regional Minister, Justina Owusu Banahene, entreated PHFAoG to adopt a new strategy in the areas of remuneration, incentives and good conditions of service to attract the right personnel to work with.
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