Ranking Member of Parliament’s Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has raised concerns about the sustainability of the National Health Insurance Authority’s (NHIA) initiative to offer free dialysis sessions for kidney patients under 18 and over 60 years old.
Starting from June 1 until December 2024, renal patients in these age groups will receive eight free dialysis sessions per month. However, Mr. Akandoh suggested that the government should instead subsidize the cost of dialysis sessions.
The NHIA also announced that kidney patients aged 19 to 59 will receive two free dialysis sessions per month.
In a media interview, Mr. Mintah Akandoh emphasized the need for a sustainable funding approach for dialysis sessions.
“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,” Akandoh explained.
“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.”
Akandoh further stated, “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.”
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