Health sector stakeholders have called for increased investment in preventive healthcare as part of the government's decision to uncap the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) levy.
According to them, such investments would help reduce the country's disease burden and build a healthier population.
Welcoming the President's confirmation to uncap the NHIS levy in the upcoming budget, the National Chairman of the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health (GCNH), Mr Bright Amissah-Nyarko, and the President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr Frank Serebuor, in separate interviews with The Ghanaian Times yesterday emphasised the need to channel the additional funds into preventive health interventions to improve overall health outcomes across the country. "This decision provides an excellent opportunity to focus on preventive measures where for instance people are able to do regular check-ups, there are recreational environment for people to just own their health and take good lifestyle practices, there is also the rehabilitative side where the aged and critically ill persons are in most cases left on their own and this could be an avenue for the health system to strengthen that area to allow people to at least maintain their health and live much longer," Mr Amissah-Nyarko stated.
Stressing that preventive healthcare was more cost-effective and sustainable than curative, the chairman expressed hope that uncapping the NHIS levy would ensure more disease conditions and medicines were captured under the scheme while aiding prompt payment of claims and placing Ghana in a better position to fulfill its co-financing obligations under global health treaties.
