Ghana: Mandatory health insurance for tourists evoke opaque COVID-19 screening deal | Proposals by Ghana’s National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), an agency of the Ministry of Health, for all non-resident visitors to subscribe to a mandatory health insurance policy of between $45 and $270 before being admitted into Ghana, has been met with a strong public objection.
Some seasoned travel consultants and Civil Society Organisations, while not against the ideal of ensuring universal coverage under the NHIS, have questioned making such a policy a pre-requisite for gaining access, and the opaqueness in the selection of a local insurance copy to underwrite it, and the criteria used in selecting specific hospitals where visitors can seek medical care under the programme.
liking the said proposal to the opaque COVID-19 testing and screening arrangement at the Kotoka International Airport at the height of the recent pandemic where no single Ministry Department or Agency took full responsibility and revenue that accrued to the state yet to be fully made know to the public, a seasoned travel consult, told Aviationghana “This may be another way to raise money they cannot account for. They should first account for the COVID money.”
NHIS Boss Reacts
Following the public outcry, the Chief Executive of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr. Dacosta Aboagye, in a Facebook Post urged the public to disregard the news item.
“Disregard the misinformation on the visitors health insurance. Please disregard the misinformation on the costings of foreign visitors insurance ranging from $45 to $270.
No decision has been taken by NHIA Executive Management nor the Board on the way forward of this National Non-resident Visitors Health Insurance policy developed in 2023 and launched in February 2024, before my assumption of office.
I am also yet to receive any report by any committee that was set up before my assumption of office on this policy, and if any, the details.
Though the NHIA Act 852 mandates NHIA to make sure non-residents have health insurance, the Authority has not yet worked out any details of such implementation.
In any case, the implementation will need cabinet and parliamentary approvals aside stakeholder engagements. Such proposal will also require an opinion from the Attorney General. The start date of 1st July 2024 is False and I have no idea of such proposed date,” he wrote. Ghana: Mandatory health insurance for tourists evoke opaque COVID-19 screening deal
By Joojo Maapah | AviationGhana
