Healthcare financing in Ghana may revert to “Cash and Carry” if the presidential hopeful of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama wins the upcoming Presidential election on December 7.
A group known as Concerned Citizens Association of Ghana, which made the aforementioned comment argued that the affairs of country cannot be placed in the hands of former President Mahama after he painfully ran down key sectors of the Ghanaian economy.
In a statement, the group noted that while, the current President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration is working towards providing Universal health care coverage for all, it appears John Mahama is skimming to disenfranchise the extremely poor and vulnerable who are benefitting from the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
On various campaign platforms, the former President promised to provide free healthcare whether people possess NHIS ID cards or not.
This, according to the group, implies that the NDC is likely to reintroduce Cash and Carry at the secondary and tertiary levels.
“How is he (John Mahama) going to handle referrals of those without NHIS ID cards? How is the NHIS going to provide continuity of the Healthcare of such patients without NHIS ID cards at the secondary and tertiary levels of care?”, the group quizzed.
It stated that the former President’s outburst means either he is ignorant of the NHIS modus operandi or he will poorly regulate the Scheme, which will eventually worsen access to care for the poor.
“If Ex-President Mahama says we should trust him and NDC with free Primary Healthcare, then remember the failed promise of ‘One Time Premium on NHIS’, the group stated.
In a related development, son of Ghana’s first President, Dr Sekou Nkrumah has taken a swipe at John Dramani Mahama over his free primary healthcare promise.
“John Mahama could not run the National Health Insurance Scheme and today he is talking of free primary health care? Does he think Ghanaians are fools?”, Sekou questioned.
