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The Minister for Environment, Science, and Technology, Hon. Dr. Kwaku Afiriyie, says the Ministry of Finance should stop capping the NHIS fund for other government obligations since the fund was created for a specific purpose.
“Even though my government is in power but we can have a minority voice. Even though the NDC government amended the law for the fund to pass through consolidated accounts, that has given the Finance Minister the authority, beginning from Seth Terkper to the current minister to cap the fund to support other government obligations.”
“The purpose for creating NHIS has been diverted for other expenditure. I personally championed it under former president Kufuor’s administration and the purpose was to lessen the cost of health care delivery for Ghanaians and health practitioners,” he stated.
The National Health Insurance Fund and other statutory monies are capped, and the minority in parliament has lamented this decision’s detrimental effects.
Funds from statutory sources, such as the NHIF, must equal 25% of national revenue for each fiscal year, according to the 2017 Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Act.
The Minority claims that this action is not providing the necessary funding for the National Health Insurance Scheme.
Recently, the Health Minister was forced to deny allegations that the National Health Insurance Fund had only received GHS127 million of the nearly GHS2 billion that had been disbursed.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com/Nana Kwaku Boffah.
