He said his statement about some of the challenges with the scheme was construed and misreported.
In a communique by the Ministry of Health, it said the Minister rather condemned extortions by some healthcare providers which is negatively affecting the scheme.
“We wish to state unequivocally that the said headlines are misleading and a complete misrepresentation of what the Minister said on the respective subject matter. According to the Minister, “From the end-users’ point of view, it looks like the Health Insurance is not working as a result of the extortions.” This statement is not meant to insinuate that Health Insurance is not working but is an admonition to the managers of the Ghana Health Service through its providers to end this criminality by every means possible.”
The Ministry also said the Mr. Agyeman Manu did not threaten to suspend the services of Zipline due to its abuse by some health facilities.
“The Minister bemoaned the practice where some health facilities just place orders for Zipline services not in times when the service is most needed. Due to the unpredicted nature of emerging technologies like Zipline, it will be in the Ministry’s and its agencies’ best interests to periodically review the guidelines around its operations to ensure alignment with Government policies”.
“The Ministry remains committed to the operations of Zipline in the provision of essential healthcare services and will keep exploring all available means to make this sustainable. We hereby wish to call on the public to disregard these misleading and misrepresentation headlines”.
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.