Vice President for IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has accused the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) of misplaced priority in carrying out its duty.
He noted that instead of focusing on subsidizing the cost of dialysis in the country, the NHIA has rather pumped huge sums of money into the Ghana Card system.
Mr Simons noted that the NHIA has unwillingly released GHC2 million to aid in kidney treatment but has budgeted GHC300 million for Ghana Cards.
According to him, such action displays the insensitivity of the NHIA, particularly when many Ghanaians cannot afford dialysis.
“The cost of dialysis in Accra can exceed 100k GHS a year. Many poor people in Ghana these days need dialysis but can’t afford. After much pressure, NHIA has grudgingly released 2M GHS, enough for 10 – 20 folks.
“Same NHIA budgeted 400M for Ghana Cards in 2023 & 300M for 2024.”
Recent fee hikes for dialysis treatment at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and Korle Bu Teaching Hospital raised concerns about the affordability of care for patients. Some patients have tragically died due to financial constraints.
Meanwhile, Haruna Iddrisu, the Member of Parliament for Tamale South, has raised concerns about the National Health Insurance Authority’s (NHIA) allocation of GH¢2 million for dialysis support to needy patients this year.
He believes that a more sufficient allocation would have been GH¢10 million.
In October 2023, President Akufo-Addo issued a directive to the Ministry of Health and the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to create a comprehensive strategy for funding kidney treatment in the country.