The Minister-designate for Health, Dr Bernard Okoe-Boye has emphasized the importance of women's empowerment in building an industrious nation for future generations.

He drew a direct relationship between women's empowerment and socioeconomic development and posited that women are better managers of available resources.

"I am very pleased to say here that the NHIA links with any positive move towards women's empowerment. I am proud to say that two of the NHIA's Deputy Chief Executives are women. One is in charge of Human Resources/Administration and the other Operations."

The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Ag. Director of Administration and Human Resources, Mr Raymond Avinu, read the outgoing NHIA Chief Executive's speech at the second edition of Corporate Health and Legal Crusade, masterminded by a non-governmental organization known as B-Heck Africa COHLDA, held at the Coconut Grove Hotel in Accra.

As a gender activist, Dr Okoe-Boye commended the event organizers for the theme, "Empowering corporate Africa on legal and health rights to serve as a public health safety advocate."

"This aptly recognizes the impact of multi and inter-sectoral collaboration in forging corporate partnerships for the Sustainable Development Goals as captured under SDG 17."

"The NHIA associates with the B-HeCK Africa dedication to fostering impactful collaborations in presenting this second edition of a special women empowerment event in commemoration of “International Women's Day.”

Dr Okoe-Boye said the event was in tandem with the National Health Insurance Scheme’s (NHIS) year-long 20th Anniversary celebration.

"As the outgoing NHIA Chief Executive and the Health Minister-designate, I am much more excited to be part of this one-of-a-kind B-HeCK Africa partnership event. As the incoming Health Minister, I have a duty and responsibility to ensure the health and well-being of the citizenry, of which the corporate workforce is prime."

He stressed, “This is an event that I am personally sensitive about because it is to ensure the wellbeing of workers of whom I am inclusive, especially when emphasizing the biopsychosocial model of health which I best relate to as a Medical Practitioner."

"The corporate health and legal date, being a movement makes me highly hopeful and expectant of a stage in our corporate dispensation when the average worker will be accorded the kind of respect, honour, and support which have long eluded the average worker in our part of the world deprived of in the past and it is not by coincidence that it is happening under my administration."

Dr Okoe Boye showed appreciation for the role played by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), in making the NHIS the best model in Sub-Saharan Africa.

"Over the years, through the support of Civil Society Organizations and development partners, we have grown Ghana’s indigenous NHIS into an enviable remarkable social protection model in Africa and beyond, but a lot more needs to be done. We need to work harder to get closer to achieving the national agenda of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by the year 2030. Our goal is to fully drive the national agenda of attaining Universal Health Coverage (UHC)."

"We need to encourage more people to enrol on the NHIS as we remain committed to providing access to improved healthcare delivery on a sustainable basis. Together, we can make this a reality."

He highlighted the NHIA's achievement of reducing the NHIS claims payments backlog to just two months as of February 2024.

"Presently, the Authority makes monthly payments to service providers whose claims have been vetted and approved and the latest payments to the tune of over 130 million cedis was paid in February this year, which narrowed the arrears gap to just two months. The Authority is committed to attaining 100 per cent electronic claims management and the essence is to eliminate wastage and ensure prudent use of available resources to provide access to quality, the best healthcare services to NHIS members and surely renew the government’s confidence in the NHIA’s fiscal discipline."

"As a result of the rapid claims payments, we launched a platform known as the 'Sunshine policy' to deepen accountability, transparency, and social auditing. Since its launch in March 2023, suppliers of drugs to healthcare facilities and the public can log onto the NHIS official website with privileged access to view payments made to deserving facilities. This highest level of transparency has won the admiration of healthcare managers as a critical innovation."

The Minister of Health-designate encouraged people to use the new online registration platform known as MyNHIS App and sign up for the NHIS to benefit from the expanded Benefits Package.
"The National Health Insurance Authority continues to introduce innovations to expand its operations.

Notable among these innovations is the recent introduction of the MyNHIS App, which is helping a lot of people to do multiple registrations and self-renewal of expired NHIS membership using Android phones.

"What is key for us today is leveraging the use of the Ghana Card for Health Care Access and I urge all holders of the NHIS and Ghana cards to link the two and use one card for healthcare access. We at the National Health Insurance Authority are determined to harness and leverage technology and consensus-building to drive change in the healthcare ecosystem and I ask for your support in making this change.

This is a chance we cannot afford to miss. We must make real changes to healthcare delivery to have a sustainable healthcare system for our people in the future."

Awards

Some distinguished Ghanaian women including the NHIA Deputy Chief Executive for Administration and Human Resources, Dr Yaa Pokuaa-Baiden (Mrs.) and the Deputy Chief Executive responsible for Operations, Louisa Atta-Agyemang (Mrs.) were honoured.