News:
June 7, 2024
The Ranking member on the Committee of Health, Kwabena Minta Akandoh is advocating for government to either go for total or partial absorption of cost of dialysis of Ghanaians instead of the populist six-month approach.
He has taken a swipe at the Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for not having knowledge about the whole dialysis debate but is out there in the public space that government has absorbed cost of dialysis of people from age eighteen (18) and below and sixty (60) and above.
Rather the age bracket mentioned by government form only twenty (20) percent of patients with dialysis in Ghana, while the huge population are from age nineteen (19) to fifty-nine (59).
Again, “when the National Health Insurance brought its formula for approval in 2024, we insisted that a provision be made for the treatment of dialysis; so this proposal never came from the Executive, vice president has no knowledge of this proposal.
It was suggested at the committee level, and we pushed it at the floor of the House and it was a condition before we approved the formula. So, MPs insisted that some allocation should be made so the provision of about two million Ghana cedis was made for dialysis.”
The is therefore a deception out there as the Vice president said government has absorbed the dialysis cost for people below the ages of 18 and above 60, Akandoh added.
“If you read the statement put up by the National Health Insurance Authority, it is clear that the plan is for six months; what happens after the six month? We need a sustainable and well-thought through plan to be able to absorb the cost of dialysis not this populist approach. I do not know where suddenly the vice president has found his voice on the issue of the cost of dialysis in this country.”
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com