The Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr Dacosta Aboagye, says the authority will seek the opinion of the Attorney General regarding the proposed Mandatory Health Insurance for visitors.

The policy which was launched in February, has faced criticism regarding its implementation methods.

Speaking at a media forum in Kumasi, Dr Dacosta Aboagye clarified that consultations are aimed at ensuring thorough implementation, garnering support from stakeholders, including Parliament.

“We will write to the minister to now take it to cabinet, then cabinet will now give us their approval. But I will not end it there. I will also seek consensus from parliament on the implementation. If you are implementing something and the citizens are obviously saying they want to have their say in it, you have to give them their say.”

“So those are the processes that I am talking about. So it is the implementation plan that we need, parliamentary approval, we need cabinet and the attorney general’s opinion. Those are the three things we must satisfy before I will carry on.”

Dr. Aboagye assured continued engagement with stakeholders to address concerns.

He also stated that despite the policy implementation being discussed, pricing has yet to be settled.

“If the policy is talking about a price, we will look at it and do the actuarial and if it is within the best international practice then we carry on by getting the buy in from the citizens as usual. That is also crucial.”

The Chief Executive Officer also refuted claims that the mandatory health insurance for foreigners was taking effect from July 1.

“If someone has mentioned 1st of July, I don’t know where it came from but that cannot be true. Maybe they were thinking of the stakeholder engagements starting on July 1. There is nothing like that. We are now trying to see how best it will work. We will bring everybody on the table. The private sector will be there.”

“We actually regulate the private health insurance. If they want to have a stake, why not? If the delivery is going to be by private insurance companies, it can. I don’t have any problem about that. We have not worked out any model as at now. I just want to kill that speculation that they are saying, that it is going to cost 40 and 270. The media got it entirely wrong. It is the implementation plan, not the policy itself.”