President Nana Akufo-Addo
PRESIDENT Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says many of the indebtedness inherited by his government, including the GH?1.2 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