GMA Gen Sec Punches NHIS Capitation

General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association has faulted benchmarks used by the National Health Insurance Authority to pilot the capitation system in the Ashanti region.

Dr. Frank Serebour argues, it was wrong for the NHIA to have resorted to the region for the piloting making specific reference to the population size of the Ashanti region.

Dr. Serebour was reacting to agitations by the Asante Development Union calling for an immediate reversal of the policy from the region.

The Asante Development Union has called on the National Health Insurance Authority to abort the capitation system of the National Health Insurance Scheme by Friday January 27 or face the wrath of residents of the Ashanti region.

At a press conference, The Asante Development Union explained that its call for the abrogation of the of capitation policy is to safe-guard the health standards of the people of the region against what it calls the murderous policy introduced by the NHIA in the name of capitation.

But General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association insists for the NHIA to pilot the capitation in a region that has about a quarter of overall subscription of the NHIS is a misplaced priority.

Meanwhile Dr. Frank Serebour has blamed the challenges confronting the capitation system on failure by the NHIA to admit stakeholder contribution during a stakeholders’ consultative forum.

Dr. Frank Serebour admits though the National Health Insurance Authority engaged stakeholders in a dialogue, individual inputs were not considered during the implementation.