Ranking Member of Parliament’s Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has cast doubt on the sustainability of the National Health Insurance Authority’s (NHIA) move to provide free dialysis sessions for kidney patients under 18 and over 60 years old.
Effective June 1 to December 2024, renal patients will receive all eight dialysis sessions per month for free but according to Mr. Akandoh, the government should rather subsidise the fees charged for dialysis sessions.
The NHIA also announced that kidney patients between 19 and 59 years old will receive two free dialysis sessions per month.
In a media interview, Mr. Mintah Akandoh stated that the government must devise a sustainable approach to funding dialysis sessions for patients in the country.
“The patients deserve better, and the government can come in [to help]. If you look at the payment or the purchase of vaccines, sometimes the National Health Insurance pays something and the government will also come in to pay counterpart funding, so this is not sustainable.
“It is only for six months and it is so because we are in the election period. All this while we have not heard the vice president speak about this.
“It is political because after December, there is no plan, so you go back to paying what you used to pay. And in actual fact, it has increased from GH¢380 to GH¢491.”
Source: citinewsroom.com
