The average Ghanaian's life is worth more than GH¢1.75

Three years after failing to implement the one-time insurance premium, thrown about on the campaign trail to deceive the people of Ghana for their votes, the government is telling Ghanaians that life in this part of the world is not worth beyond GH¢1.75 – the Capitation Grant imposed on all health centres to attend to every patient in the system.

In other words, the life of a Ghanaian, in the estimation of the 'I Care for You' administration of the former University don, is GH¢1.75. And since this is not enough to pay for the commonest of drugs, most health service providers in the Ashanti Region have resolved not to accept any patient on the wobbling National Health Insurance premium.

At a meeting in Kumasi to address the issue, members of the Society for Private Medical and Dental Practitioners in the Ashanti Region, resolved to suspend their services to the National health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) with effect from Tuesday, January 31, 2012.

What this means is that any patient on the NHIS would not be entertained in any private clinic or hospital in the region.

A statement signed by Dr. Emmanuel Harry Tawiah, Chairman of the Regional SPDMP, and Mrs. Agartha Boahene, National Chairman of the Ghana Registered Midwives Association (GRMA), said the low Capitation Grant was detrimental to quality health care, and has the potential of collapsing health facilities throughout the country.

It is not only in the Ashanti Region that health care delivery is under threat. At Koforidua in the Eastern Region, the Eastern Regional branch of the SPMDP has equally kicked against the grant, stressing that it was woefully inadequate. The authorities in the Eastern Region are demanding a ceiling of GH¢10, or at least, GH¢8.00.

The Chronicle is ill at ease with the stance of this administration. There is no way that GH¢1.75 can cure a patient in any economy of galloping price hikes.

This administration must be told in the face that it cannot continue to toy with the lives of Ghanaians, while officials avail themselves of very expensive medical treatment abroad at the expense of the tax payer.

Last December, for instance, when the President of the Republic was supposedly away on a nebulous business assignment/holiday, there were suggestions that that the head of state might have been away seeking medical attention.

We dare state that it was state resources that, obviously, was used to care for his medical bills. Why would the life of the average Ghanaian be jettisoned at the altar of the ridiculous Capitation Grant? GH¢1.75 cannot pay for any kind of medication in a country that is trying rather hard to wear the tag of one of the most expensive societies in the world.

The Capitation Grant of GH¢1.75 cannot cure even a dog in the country Atta Mills has conspired with his political aides to collapse. If the President and his technocrats believe that the life of the average Ghanaian is worth more than the vote that brought the National Democratic Congress to power, it must endeavour to increase the Capitation Grant.

We would like to suggest a minimum grant of GH¢5 per person.