The General Secretary for the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) Dr. Justice Yankson is urging the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to clearly outline how various free health policies promised in the 2020 manifesto will be financed.

The NPP and NDC 2020 manifestos have made twenty-two (22) and sixty-seven (67) promises respectively to aid healthcare in the health sector.

But speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile, Dr. Yankson said implementation of policies for the health sector is key, not yet the documentation of promises.

According to him, although “It is good to have the dream that every district should have a health facility, and free primary healthcare”, the question of financing remains.

The General Secretary for GMA argued that several promises to the health sector over the years have not been accomplished.

To buttress his point, he stated that, even the benchmark cut out by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) of 15 per cent of the GDP to the health sector has not been met for many years.

“The best the country has done over the years was dedicate 9 percent of the GDP to the health sector. It always hovers around 5, 6, or 7 percent, he added.

He further explained that, for several years, what is received by the health sector is used as “compensation” and “there is always nothing left for real health care”.

Dr. Yankson also questioned the implementation of free health care policy by the NDC.

“With the NDC’s free primary health care, what becomes of the NHIS if primary health care is made free at the district level? What happens to the NHIS?” he added.

He admonished Ghanaians to hold government; irrespective of who wins the December 7 polls accountable for promises made to the health sector.