National Health Insurance boss puts up different figures for registered members
The country’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has come under scrutiny recently following a damning report by the international NGO, Oxfam. The report questioned the figure that the scheme is putting out as the actual number of Ghanaians that are registered with it.
Oxfam accused the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) of lack of transparency, describing it as inefficient and not working for many Ghanaians.
Oxfam also accused the Authority of misrepresenting the figures regarding how many Ghanaians are actively registered with the scheme. The authority, however, appears to be putting different figures about.
The CEO of the NHIA, Mr. Sylvester Mensah has said on TV Africa recently that 16.8 million Ghanaians were registered on the scheme as at December 2010, but Oxfam says that figure is exaggerated. According to Oxfam however, the actual number of Ghanaians who are actively covered by the scheme “could be as low as 18%” of Ghana’s population.”
On the TV Africa show, ‘Bare Facts’ Mr. Mensah said there were 12.5 million subscribers in 2008, 14.5 million in 2009 and 16.8 million in 2010.
Mr. Mensah has mentioned yet a different figure according to a report in the Daily Graphic of Friday March 18, 2011. In the report he was quoted as saying that membership of the NHIS as of 2010 stood at 12.2 million, representing 62% of the country’s population.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi