It will use the five-day visit to learn from Ghana’s experience in running the scheme, to improve Mali’s health insurance system.

The leader of the team, Dr Doucga Camara, said his country instituted the national health insurance in 2011 and had so far achieved about 22 per cent coverage.

He said Mali was looking forward to a new health insurance system in 2018 as part of its efforts to ensure 100 per cent coverage and also ensure access to quality health care.

Dr Camara said the system had faced a number of challenges since its introduction, hence the visit to Ghana to understudy its NHIS.

Areas of study

Although Dr Camara acknowledged that Ghana’s health insurance system had had it’s fair share of challenges, he nonetheless referred to it as one of the best in West Africa to understudy.

Therefore, he said the team was seeking to acquire lessons on how to raise revenue to sustain the system, database management, biometric system and the instant issuance of cards, among others.

The team is expected to visit the various NHIS offices and the 37 Military Hospital.

Challenges

Welcoming the delegation, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Operations, Dr Lydia Dsane–Selbey, expressed Ghana’s willingness to help in providing technical assistance to Mali.

She thanked the delegation for its confidence in Ghana’s system and said various technocrats at the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) would take turns to share lessons with members and said the management would be open about its challenges so that Mali does not repeat the mistakes.

She lauded Mali for embarking on a journey to provide a system that sought to provide 100 per cent universal health insurance for her people.