According to them, such investments would help reduce the country’s disease burden and build a healthier popula­tion.

Welcoming the President’s confirmation to uncap the NHIS levy in the upcoming budget, the National Chairman of the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health (GCNH), Mr Bright Amissah-Nyarko, and the President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr Frank Serebuor, in separate interviews with The Ghanaian Times yesterday emphasised the need to channel the additional funds into preventive health interventions to improve over­all health outcomes across the country.

Ghanaian souvenirs

“This decision provides an excellent opportunity to focus on preventive measures where for instance people are able to do regular check-ups, there are recreational environment for people to just own their health and take good lifestyle practices, there is also the re­habilitative side where the aged and critically ill persons are in most cases left on their own and this could be an avenue for the health system to strengthen that area to allow people to at least maintain their health and live much longer,” Mr Amis­sah-Nyarko stated.
    

Stressing that preventive healthcare was more cost-ef­fective and sustainable than cu­rative, the chairman expressed hope that uncapping the NHIS levy would ensure more disease conditions and medicines were captured under the scheme while aiding prompt payment of claims and placing Ghana in a better position to fulfill its co-financing obligations under global health treaties.
Ghanaian souvenirs

Dr Serebour echoing similar sentiments called for ring-fenc­ing of funds following the uncapping, such that, the money is used solely for health purposes.

“Once you ring-fence, then it means that the funds do not go into the pool and it’s easy to account for it and we can track what exactly it is used for.

Nobody can cash that money back except for health projects and so forth, then we can be very sure of account­ability,” he said.

Meanwhile the National Health Insurance Author­ity (NHIA) in a statement issued on Monday, January 13, commended the government for the decision to uncap the NHIS levy describing it as “a significant turning point in the scheme’s history.”

‘This bold move will signifi­cantly improve the scheme’s growth and its vision to attain Universal Health Coverage.

“It will enable the NHIA to expand coverage, settle claims promptly, improve service delivery, and ensure that every Ghanaian has access to qual­ity and affordable healthcare regardless of socio-economic status,” the statement said.

The uncapping of the NHIS levy is expected to generate additional revenue to address critical healthcare gaps and im­prove access to quality services, particularly in underserved communities.

In 2017, the government in­troduced a capping mechanism under the Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Act, 2017 (Act 947) which allowed limited the amount of reve­nue from earmarked funds including the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), that could be allocated to specific uses.

Under this law, a portion of the NHIF was diverted to oth­er sectors leaving the NHIA with less funding than the total revenue collected through lev­ies and other sources, resulting in delayed payments to service providers and challenges in sustaining the scheme.