Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, the Ranking Member of Parliament’s Health Committee, has expressed concerns over the sustainability of the National Health Insurance Authority’s (NHIA) recent initiative to provide free dialysis sessions for specific age groups.
Starting from June 1 until December 2024, the NHIA will offer renal patients under 18 and over 60 years old eight free dialysis sessions per month.
While acknowledging the program’s potential benefits, Mr. Akandoh suggested that the government should consider subsidizing dialysis fees instead.
In a media interview, Mr. Mintah Akandoh stated that the government must devise a sustainable approach to funding dialysis sessions for patients in the country.
“The patients deserve better, and the government can come in to help. If you look at the payment or the purchase of vaccines, sometimes the National Health Insurance pays something and the government will also come in to pay counterpart funding, so this is not sustainable.
“It is only for six months and it is so because we are in the election period. All this while we have not heard the vice president speak about this.
“It is political because after December, there is no plan, so you go back to paying what you used to pay. And in actual fact, it has increased from GH¢380 to GH¢491.”
