Ghana’s health insurance scheme attracts more foreigners

Ghana’s Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) which has become a model for many countries continues to attract various foreign health officials to Ghana to understudy the scheme to implement it in their respective countries.

Amidst some challenges facing the scheme, many countries including South Africa, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Bangladesh, South Korea and United Kingdom have sent delegations to Ghana to learn and share experiences over the scheme.

An eight member Beninios delegation led by Dr Moussa Yarou, Chief Executive Officer of Benin’s Health Insurance Authority are currently in the country to understudy the scheme to enable them to implement a similar scheme in Benin by June this year.

Dr Yarou told journalists in Accra on Thursday that his delegation have been in Ghana for four days to learn how the scheme works, adding; “Ghana serves as a good example for us to learn from”.

He explained that Ghana’s scheme with it peculiar exemptions for the under-aged children, pregnant women and the aged coupled with the solid fund from the Value Added Tax (VAT) make it a unique programme that can easily be emulated by Benin.

“We just have to fine-tune it to suit our health system in Benin. I hope to present whatever we have learnt here that would suit us back home”, Dr Yarou said.

He said from the experiences learnt, Benin would ensure that there was a good ICT system in place and also make sure that the re-imbursement or claim services was effectively arranged before they embark on their country’s insurance scheme.

Nii Anang Adjetey, NHIA Acting Deputy Director, Corporate Affairs, said the delegation was taken to some of the facilities of the NHIS, at Dodowa, the 37 Military hospital and a host of other health institutions to learn about the scheme.

He explained that currently, the scheme had been able to deal with the challenge of delays in payment of claims and that providers were being paid within 60 days instead of the 90 days as the laws stipulated.

A number of interventions like audit scheme had been put in place to ensure transparency in the system, Nii Adjetey said.

Source: GNA