National Health Insurance (Ghana)
| National Health Insurance Scheme | |
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| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 2003 |
| Jurisdiction |
 Republic of Ghana
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| Parent agency | Parliament of Ghana |
| Website | Official Website |
The National Health Insurance Scheme is a form of National health insurance established by the Government of Ghana, with a goal to provide equitable access and financial coverage for basic health care services to Ghanaian citizens.
The idea for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Ghana was conceived by former president John Kufuor who when seeking the mandate of the people in the 2000 elections, promised to abolish the cash and carry system of health delivery. Under the cash and carry system, the health need of an individual was only attended to after initial payment for the service was made. Even in cases when patients had been brought into the hospital on emergencies it was required that money was paid at every point of service delivery.
Upon becoming president, former president Kufuor pushed through his idea of getting rid of “cash and carry” and replacing it with an equitable insurance scheme that ensured that treatment was provided first before payment for Ghanaian citizens. In 2003, the scheme was passed into law. Under the law, there was the establishment of Ghana National Health Insurance Authority which licenses, monitors and regulates the operation of health insurance schemes in Ghana. Like many countries in the world, Ghana's health insurance was fashioned out to meet specific needs of Ghanaian citizens.
The National Health Insurance Scheme is a form of National health insurance established by the Government of Ghana. The scheme provides equitable access and financial coverage for basic health care services to the Ghanaian population. The objective of the NHIC is to secure the implementation of the national health insurance policy that ensures access to basic healthcare services to all residents of Ghana.
The health insurance was set up to allow Ghanaian citizens to make contributions into a fund so that in the event of illness Ghanaian contributors could be supported by the fund to receive affordable health care. Under this policy, three types of health insurance schemes were set up. They were:
In order for the system to function well, the government decided to support the District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme concept to ensure that:
Like all insurance schemes, different types of premiums are available under the country's NHIS. Ghanaian contributors are grouped according to their levels of income. Based on the group a Ghanaian contributor may fall in, there is specific premium that ought to be paid. This was done since the socio-economic condition scheme contributors is not the same and the Ghanaian contributions was to be affordable for all to ensure that nobody is forced to remain in cash and carry system. This meant that Ghanaian contributions payable could vary from one district to the other as even the disease burden was also not the same in all the districts. To ensure that all Ghanaian citizens made some contribution to the scheme, a 2.5% Health Insurance Levy on selected goods and services was passed into law so that the money collected could be put into a National Health Insurance Fund to subsidize fully paid contributions to the District Health Insurance Schemes.
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