The National Health Insurance Authority has launched a scathing attack on a report published by UK based OXFAM which criticized operations of the Authority regarding the manner in which Health Insurance is ran in Ghana. Chief Executive Officer of NHIA Sylvester Mensah told journalists in Accra on Thursday that, OXFAM's report released on March 9th, 2011, is unsubstantiated and inaccurate. “The report is not even worth commenting [on] but for the image of the Ghana and the NHIA. It is a calculated effort to tarnish home-grown African initiative,” Mr. Mensah emphasized. The NHIA Boss described portions of the report which said the coverage of the Health Insurance in terms of Ghana’s population as at 2009 at 18% as flawed, saying the OXFAM and its local partners failed to confirm the data it got from its research with the Authority. He stated that, the national coverage of the Scheme as at 2009 with an estimated population of 23 million people, was 62%. “The research methodology is flawed, the report did not describe which type of study was being undertaken, they did not confirm figures from the NHIA. It is malicious and an apology to research,” according to him. Mr. Mensah expressed as laughable, an allegation in the report accusing the NHIA of not accounting for 45% of funds of the scheme. He said the scheme is run from public funds which is available for all to crosscheck. “Let me serve notice to OXFAM that, its parochial motive of divide and rule will not materialize in Ghana”, he declared. Meanwhile Ghana’s NHIA has received an award from the UNDP and the World Bank, for showing leadership and implementation of Health Insurance in the developing world. Story by Jerry Tsaro Mordy/Adom News