Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) SSNIT contributors, Preventive Health Promotion and Free Dialysis
On June 10, 2024, Graphic Online published an article titled: SSNIT contributors gain automatic NHIS migration. Some key points from the article are (1) Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributors will become automatic subscribers to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) (2) free registration and renewal, waiving one-month waiting and automatic renewal for SSNIT contributors (3) Ghana card for 6-14-year olds (4) once-a-year checkup and (5) free dialysis
SSNIT Contributors will Become Automatic Subscribers to the NHIS
This is good news. One of the biggest problems with service delivery in Ghana is bureaucracy. This initiative is long overdue, but “it is better late than never”, as the saying goes. This should have started with the launch of the NHIS. If SSNIT contributors contribute 2.5% of their monthly earnings to the NHIS and make up the second largest contributors, they can be said to be premium contributors. To have your premium contributors queue up to enroll in the NHIS or renew their NHIS membership and suffer a one-month delay penalty in case of late renewal is unacceptable. Due to this situation, about 1.3 million SSNIT contributors who were paying the NHIS levy religiously (more than 50% of SSNIT contributors) through SSNIT deductions were being left out of the benefits of the NHIS. I do hope that subsequent projects will factor in ease of enrolment, and access, in the planning stages.
Free Registration and Renewal, Waiving One-Month Waiting, and Automatic Renewal for SSNIT Contributors
Waiving the one-month waiting period for SSNIT members when they sign on to the NHIS is a step in the right direction. The waiting should not have been happening in the first place. A person should not pay for a service and have to wait for some time to start enjoying it. I hope the one-month waiting period will be waived for all, not just SSNIT contributors. The automatic renewal of membership for SSNIT contributors is a good advancement. This is going to save SSNIT contributors time and other headaches associated with the renewal process. It is also going to help decongest the NHIS offices, so that others can be served faster. Finally, it is only right that SSNIT contributors are not asked to pay additional fees to register or renew their membership to the NHIS. The previous arrangement resulted in SSNIT contributors paying two times for the same service. It is good that it is being corrected.
Ghana Card for 6-14-Year Olds
It is laudable that the identification gap for people aged 6 to 14 has been identified and is being addressed to enable them conveniently gain access to the NHIS. The effort to make easy access to the NHIS inclusive is very welcome.
Preventive Health Promotion and Free Dialysis
The report also revealed that the NHIS would embark on preventive health promotion by allowing NHIS subscribers to do a once-a-year free health check. In addition, dialysis will be added to the NHIS coverage, so that patients can receive it for free. These are welcome ideas, as they should help to improve the health of recipients and relieve dialysis patients of heavy financial burdens. As laudable and desirable as the ideas are, I wonder whether their implementation is plausible. I have my doubts based on a recent experience I had with the health service.
My Recent Experience With the Ghana Health System
I had a debridement (a form of surgery) performed on my finger on May 10, 2024. For the 11 visits I had to make from May 12 to June 1, 2024 for change of dressing, I had to provide gauze and surgical gloves. Other patients had to provide gauze bandage and normal saline in addition. I perceive that the items mentioned above are some of the basic tools and materials needed by a surgical ward. For those who may not be familiar with the above materials and tools, I will give a layman’s explanation of what they are and what they are used for.
Surgical gloves are the thicker of two types of gloves I have seen being used by nurses and doctors. The surgical gloves are won by the nurses when dressing a patient’s wound. Gauze is the first covering placed over the wound. It is the one that the medicine is directly applied to. Gauze bandage, as the name suggests, is used to wrap around the area of the wound. It holds the gauze firmly in place. Normal saline is a sodium chloride (common salt) solution that is used to clean wounds before dressing them, or for moistening stuck dressings.
Conclusion
I would love to see the free health checkup and free dialysis implemented and successfully executed, but how can a system which appears to already be under heavy stress be able to take more pressure? Will it end up being one of the many not-thought-through projects Ghana is now famous for? I pray not, but I guess time will tell.