News:
March 27, 2014
Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho has directed the Ministry of Health to forward its report of the on-going Health Insurance Capitation programme being piloted in the Ashanti Region.
This follows a motion moved by MP for Wa West Joseph Yieleh Chireh and seconded by MP for Nhyieso Dr. Richard Anane urging the Minister of Health to review the on-going Health Insurance Capitation programme being implemented by the National Health Insurance Authority in the Ashati Region and to report to the House on the way forward.
Prior to this, Dr Richard Anane had initiated a campaign on the floor of Parliament to terminate the contentious capitation programme, however the Majority Leader, Dr Benjamin Kunbour argued and proposed an amendment to the motion filed by Dr. Anane rather calling for the extension of the capitation programme to across the country. The programme is to be rolled out in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions.
The capitation which is one of the three main payment systems under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) sought to replace the fee for service which was considered to be causing a rapid rise in cost and thereby threatening the sustainability of the NHIS.
The capitation is a provider payment mechanism in which providers in the payment system are paid typically in advanced and pre-determined fixed rate to provide a defined set of services for the individual enrolled for a fixed period of time. Hence, capitation was considered to have the tendency of improving the viability of NHIS, simplifying claims processing and addressing difficulties in forecasting and budgeting.
Indeed virtually all labour fronts in the health sector of the Ashanti Region soon after the capitation programme was implemented resisted the operationalization of the scheme. Some civil society groups took the opportunity to air their grievances concerning the policy.
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