Health insurance confab ends

NINE African countries last Friday completed a five-day health insurance workshop in Accra, dubbed “Extending Health Insurance: How to Make it Work”.
The workshop brought together representatives from governments, civil society groups and the private sector from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Ethiopia, Liberia and Sierra Leone participated as observers.
The workshop was structured around eight design elements which were political feasibility, financing mechanisms, population coverage, benefit package design, engagement with health care providers, organisational structure, operationalising health insurance, and also monitoring and evaluation.
Health insurance experts from countries which were already implementing health insurance schemes in Africa, USAID's Global Health Systems 20/20 Project and the World Bank, presented papers and also team work by participants for two hours a day on each of the design elements.
At the end of the programme, the participants said they were leaving for their respective countries with a better understanding of the modalities and implications of crafting a health insurance scheme for their country or upgrading their existing ones.
During deliberations it became apparent that there were no recipes for designing a health insurance scheme.
In his presentation the Director of Administration of the National Health Insurance Authority ( NHIA) in Ghana, Mr Nathaniel Otto, re-emphasised the earlier point when he said “ just start with an imperfect model, leave the theories aside, roll up your sleeves and start”.
The workshop raised awareness on the linkages between health insurance schemes and the need to eliminate catastrophic health insurance costs for the poorest , hence alleviating poverty.
In his opening remarks, Ghana’s Health Minister Designate, Dr Benjamin Kunbour, said “very often health insurance is concentrated in urban populations and the formal sector. We in Ghana believe that the people in need are those in the rural areas and so we made provisions to cover them”
Organised and sponsored by Global Health Systems 20/20 Project and the World Bank in collaboration WHO, ILO, and Rockefeller Foundation, the workshop specifically focused on scaling up health insurance in Africa.
Throughout the period Ghana and Rwanda were used as examples of best practice on health insurance in Africa.
Reports from the Ghanaian authority indicated that since its inception in 2004, Ghana had successfully rolled out its social health insurance scheme creating 145 District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes (DMHIS) which covered the rich and poor alike.
Today, more than 60 per cent of the Ghanaian population is covered.
In Rwanda coverage hit 91 per cent this year.
During the workshop, Ghanaian representatives from the National Health Insurance Authority shared their experiences and challenges of their current health insurance scheme. The successful Rwandan experience was also presented.
Field visits to the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Ridge Hospital, Alpha Medical Centre, Mutual Health Insurance Scheme and Ayawaso District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme were organised to allow a member of each country to visit different Ghanaian health institutions.