Professor Edwine Balasa, Deputy Executive Director of the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Program, said that while health insurance coverage across African countries is above 20%, coverage of all types of health insurance is 20%. Rwanda, Ghana, Gabon and Burundi are the only four countries in Africa with more than 30,000 people. Africa is low.
“Only four countries had some form of health insurance coverage above 20% (Rwanda 78%, Ghana 58.2%, Gabon 40.8% and Burundi 22.0%),” Professor Balasa revealed.
However, Professor Balasa urges health authorities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and other low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to consider tax funding as a sustainable and viable mechanism for mobilizing resources in the health sector. Requested that compulsory contributory medical insurance be adopted. .
Professor Balasa said this would help the continent achieve universal health coverage (UHC) and health security.
Professor Balasa gave a presentation highlighting the performance of health insurance in Africa at the first NHIA-WHO Regional Conference on Financing UHC and Health Security with the theme “Overcoming financial barriers and providing financial risk protection” acknowledged that African countries are increasingly introducing mechanisms. For the health field.
He said the latest demographic and health surveys available for 36 African countries as of 2021 show that low- and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa will remove economic barriers to access and increase financial risk. He said that this shows that public health insurance is being increasingly focused on as a mechanism for achieving this goal. Protection of the people.
He added that media exposure contributed the most to the wealth distribution of health insurance coverage at 50.3%, followed by socio-economic status at 44.3% and education level at 41.6%.
He reiterated that out of the 36 countries surveyed, only eight had an average coverage rate of more than 10% for any type of health insurance. Health insurance coverage in sub-Saharan Africa is therefore characterized by substantial income inequality.
“Health insurance coverage in sub-Saharan Africa is low and geared towards the wealthy. All four countries with health insurance levels above 20% were characterized by significant funding from tax revenues. The country was mainly characterized by voluntary mechanisms.
Against a backdrop of high levels of labor market informality, sub-Saharan Africa and other low- and middle-income countries are reconsidering the role of voluntary health insurance and instead looking to mobilize resources for the health sector. Tax funding should be adopted as a sustainable and viable mechanism. ” , He said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Bernard Okoye-Boi, Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), touched on the history of health insurance financing in Ghana, noting that the country went from free health care from 1957 to the 1970s to minimal health care thereafter. He stated that he had moved to a token system. Structural adjustment programs from the 1970s to 1983.
Dr. Okoye-Boye added that in Ghana, user fees (cash-and-carry) started from 1983 to the 1990s and changed to cash-and-carry and community health insurance from 1990 to 2003. Therefore, in 2003, an act of Parliament was enacted to establish a national health insurance system.
He said the system, which was amended into Law No. 852 in 2012, is primarily funded by designated funds from social security and taxes, and participation is required by law.
He said that while membership coverage is only 55% of the population, implicit benefits cover about 95% of illnesses, and health care providers are contracted from the public, private and faith-based sectors. It was revealed that it has been done.
Dr. Okoye-Boye said Ghana was poised to achieve third-dimensional universal health coverage. It will reduce the cost burden on the system, including other services, and extend it to the uninsured in the country.
Professor Irene Akua Agyepong of the Dodowa Center for Health Research and Development believes that strategies are needed to address the inequalities that make it difficult to achieve universal health coverage in the country and ensure that the remaining 45 percent are uninsured. said it was necessary. The scheme is registered to achieve a coverage rate of 100 per cent as all Ghanaians contribute to the scheme through their National Health Insurance contributions.
“About half of Ghanaians are enrolled in the scheme, but one of the things we have done that is a credit to us and should not change is the way we fund the scheme. This means that it is through National Health Insurance premiums.
90% of the cost of this system is National Health Insurance premiums. All of us in Ghana contribute to it. If you buy something at a store, the National Health Insurance premium will be listed on your receipt. If all of us in Ghana contributed to that levy, all of us in Ghana should benefit from the National Health Insurance, but at the moment only about 55% are covered,” she said. said.
Therefore, just as other systems such as the driver’s license and the Ghana Card are compulsory for almost everyone to obtain one before they can drive or transact, Professor Akua Adjepong said registration should be compulsory rather than voluntary. supported the need for national dialogue.
“We need to sit down as a nation and find a way to ensure that every Ghanaian has access to this system. You will be able to benefit from it. It will help all of us because the aim is for us all to be healthy,” she claimed.
Source: peacefmonline.com
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