Group calls for dissolution of National Health Insurance Council

A pressure group calling itself Movement against 'Kwashiorkor Leadership' has called for the dissolution of the National Health Insurance Council for non-performance.

According to the movement, since the Council was instituted, it has not been able to put in place measures or interventions to make lasting impact on the National Health Insurance Scheme(NHIS) or help to solve the myriad of problems confronting the Scheme.

The Movement is also calling for the removal of the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) Mr Sylvester Mensah for not abiding by the laws that govern the running of the Scheme.

Speaking on Dwaso Nsem on Adom FM on Monday, the General Secretary of the Movement, Wilberforce Darko accused Mr. Sylvester Mensah of trying to collapse the Scheme because of his non-compliance to the laws governing the NHIS.

According to Mr. Darko, the NHIA dissolved all District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes in 2009 thereby depriving beneficiaries the right to make their voices heard on whether they are satisfied with the services being rendered under the Scheme.

Explaining, Mr. Darko said under the District Health Insurance Scheme, every community is required to form a community health insurance committee to convey the opinions of beneficiaries to the NHIA during its Annual General Meetings (AGM).

However, Mr. Darko says since 2009 the NHIA has not held any AGM for their performance to be assessed.

He also alleged that the NHIA, which is only a regulator, had sacked the skilled Scheme Managers and appointed people who do not have the competencies to run the scheme in the various districts.

He added that the Authority had set aside the laws; Act 650 and LI 1809 which govern the activities or the running of the Scheme.

According to Mr. Darko, the law states that licenses for the various District health insurance schemes have to be renewed before funds can transferred to the Scheme, but since 2009, those licenses have not been renewed even though funds have being transferred.

He said the NHIS has to send operational and Audit reports to the Authority before licenses are even issued but all those things have not been done so if the funds are disbursed, there is no proper mechanism to check how the money is spent giving room for embezzlement of the funds.

He stated that their reason for asking for the dismissal of the NHIA boss is his flagrant violation of the law that set up the scheme.

Mr Darko intimated that the continued stay of Mr. Mensah and members of the National Health Insurance Council will collapse the Scheme and defeat the purpose for which it was instituted.

Mr. Wilberforce Darko said the Movement against Kwashiorkor Leadership has no political motives but it is worried about the developments in the NHIS and wants government to intervene to prevent its total collapse, adding they will continue to talk about it until some results are achieved.

The movement also want the communities which benefit from the Scheme to be able to make an input into how things are done with the Scheme to ensure its smooth running.