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Minister has no idea when NHIS arrears will be cleared

The scheme owes health service providers over GHS800 million but the Health Minister is unable to tell when this will be paid.

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He said that the scheme owes health service providers over GHS800 million and that the Ministry is working hard with the Ministry of Finance to settle the debt.

“It is a little bit difficult for me to be able to predict exactly when the arrears will be settled,” the Minister said in a response to a question posed to him in parliament by the Ranking Member on Health Committee, Joseph Yieleh Chireh.

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When he was asked to at least make a commitment, the Minister said: “I will reiterate that the outstanding indebtedness to service providers as at the end of last month is GHS 844 million and as to when exactly this amount will be paid, Mr. Speaker it will be very difficult for me to tell the House. This is a very difficult issue, I cannot answer.”

The Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr. Samuel Annor had recently indicated that the Scheme is broke and almost bankrupt.

He explained that: “this has come about because we have increased our membership so much but we have not increased the funding appropriately.”

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“The scheme has been threatened by mismanagement and by huge indebtedness. We are now having to liquidate systematically the arrears so that the service providers can be encouraged to provide services for NHIS card holders. I am hoping that within 18 months, all the arrears of the NHIS would have been settled, so that we can have a secure future for the scheme,” he said.

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