Health insurance mustn’t be voluntary - Dr Dsane-Selby
For Ghana’s health insurance scheme to be financially efficient, it requires all citizens to get registered under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr Lydia Dsane-Selby, a voluntary health insurance scheme does not work.
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“That is why we passed a law making it mandatory. You need to pull the healthy and the sick together, if you want the scheme to work. We need the healthy to also carry NHIS cards.
They will not go to the hospital but it is all of us combined that allows us to pull the resources for it to work,” she stated.
At a press briefing to mark the first anniversary of the Mobile Renewal Service in Accra last Thursday, Dr Dsane-Selby disclosed that out of Ghana’s population of about 30 million, the scheme had about 21.8 million people registered in its biometric ID system, leaving about nine million people not registered.
“Out of the about 21.8 million, 12.1 million are active and can access the service today. Some have joined and haven’t renewed their membership. We are reaching out to them to renew their membership’’, she stated
Active membership
Dr Dsane-Selby indicated that there had been an increase in active membership as a result of the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Mobile Renewal Service platform.
The Mobile Renewal Service was launched on December 19, 2018, by Vice President Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, as part of government’s digitisation drive
to make the NHIS more accessible to its members and also improve upon the scheme’s financial management.
“Over five million people have taken advantage and renewed their membership at the comfort of their homes, workplace, etc without having to physically visit the scheme offices.
There are no more long queues at the NHIS district offices thereby creating enough space for staff to attend to pregnant and indigent members and also promote the scheme in the communities,” she stated.
Benefits to NHIA
She disclosed that not only had the Mobile Renewal Service benefited subscribers but it had also been of benefit to the authority.
“The opening of renewals via mobile has saved the NHIA significant amounts annually in terms of costs relating to ICT consumables, hardware maintenance and supply chain management.
The digital verification of attendance with generation of claims, check codes and SMS notification to members has improved NHIA’s ability to identify genuine claims,” she noted
Caution
Dr Dsane-Selby cautioned the public to be wary of potential fraudsters as the service is free, and also no one should give out their pin to anybody.
She also encouraged telecommunication companies to expand coverage of their networks to, at least, all provider sites to enhance healthcare delivery.