Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, is unhappy at what he describes as extortion by some service providers under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
He says poor subscribers who should be benefitting from the scheme are rather being overburdened and denied essential services they have already paid for under the scheme.
“From the end-user point of view, it looks like the health insurance is not working. I am a patient and I know what it is,” he said.
Mr Manu says this has forced him to pay cash whenever he is at a hospital to seek healthcare.
“I pay when I go to Ridge Hospital. I pay when I go to UGMC. I don’t even present my insurance card…,” he said on Tuesday, April 18.
He was speaking at the Ghana Health Service Senior Managers Meeting 2023.
According to him, “the complaints are coming about how those who are subscribed to health insurance are treated in almost all our facilities. So why shouldn’t we use the harsh word… extorting from the poor patients?”
The Health Minister also lamented the increasing number of lawsuits against health professionals in their line of work.
He observed that few of such cases were recorded when he joined the ministry six years ago, but it has almost become normal for health professionals and their facilities to be sued for negligence.
Mr Agyemang-Manu charged senior managers of the Ghana Health Service to critically take steps to reverse the situation.