The spokesperson for the National Democratic Congress on Health, Dr. Jehu Appiah, has said that the party’s Free Primary Health Care policy will serve as an improvement upon the existing National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
According to him, Free Primary Health Care will focus on health promotion and prevention, which according to him will lift the burden from the NHIS which covers less than half of the Ghanaian population.
“The National Health Insurance covers slightly less that 40% of the population, leaving 60% of the Ghanaian population with no healthcare insurance,” he stated.
Dr. Jehu Appiah said this at a Send Ghana event which aims at interrogating the manifestoes of the two major parties in Ghana at the Coconut Grove Hotel in Accra.
According to him, Ghana has struggled to have a vehicle that would take us to universal health coverage for Ghanaians, and he believes that Primary Healthcare is the most effective vehicle to execute the task.
Meanwhile, Presidential advisor on Health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare has assured that the New Patriotic Party (NPP), when entrusted with a second term in government, will build new health facilities across the country and upgrade existing ones.
The former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service maintains that President Akufo-Addo is committed to ensuring that no community in the country is without a modern health facility.
“Our health manifesto 2016 was based on ‘health in all’ approach, so we are looking at health in its totality. We will take into consideration all other determinants of health in achieving our policy,” he added.
Dr. Asare entreated Ghanaians to view the party’s exploits in the health sector since assuming office in 2016 as an assurance of its dedication to revamping health facilities.