President Nana Akufo-Addo
PRESIDENT Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo says many of the indebtedness inherited by his government,
including the GHȼ1.2
billion arrears on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) that was gradually
turning the scheme back to a ‘cash and carry’ system, have been settled.
“Today, we are
talking about National Health Insurance Scheme where the arrears are within
four to five months. As of May this year, the indebtedness of the National
Health Insurance Scheme had been fully discharged,” he stated.
Recently, members of
the Private Health Facilities Association on the NHIS threatened to revert to
the ‘cash and carry’ system of healthcare if the government did not address
their reimbursement concerns.
In a statement, the members
of the association said there were outstanding payments which dated back to
2018, and its members wanted government to settle by December 16, 2019 to avoid
going back to the ‘cash and carry’ system.
But speaking at a
media encounter on Friday in Accra, President Akufo-Addo stated that claims of
up to September (this year) are those that are being dealt with in the system
because there is always an in-built delay in settling arrears because of a line
between the service, the claim, and the payment.
According to him,
even though the current situation is not the best, it is a vast improvement over
what the government inherited, adding that “we want to work to make sure the
scheme is pumped up.”
He said the
settlement of legacy debts was part of the overall plan to sustain the gain
made by the government. “I think that we need to make sure that these
fundamentals, the fiscal deficits, rates of inflation, rates of interest are
held in a good place,” he added.
The President said
his government inherited an economy with the slowest growth rate of about 3.6
per cent for almost a decade, with a high rate of inflation hovering around 15
per cent.
So the main task was
to bring the economy back on track in order to create an opportunity for lots
of growth … “We have to have a strong base. Some fundamentals have to be in
place. People have talked about the macroeconomic fundamentals. They are not
just statistics but statistics with significance,” he stated.
The President said macroeconomic statistics reflect what is in the pockets of the citizenry and one’s ability to handle day-to-day issues of living, pointing out that inflation rate is now about 8.3 per cent which is a significant improvement over what his government inherited.
By Ernest Kofi Adu
