Representatives of the health sector of Ghana have met to deliberate further on the output of aligning the Ministry of Health’s National Essential Health Services Package (EHSP) to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Benefit Package.
The purpose of this EHSP is to elaborate on the set of priority essential services and interventions to be made universally accessible to all persons living in Ghana by 2030 within the framework of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). It is meant to help address critical gaps in health equity across the country.
The core domains included in the EHSP were developed using the Life-course approach and with attention to these five core dimensions – Promotive, Preventive, Curative, Palliative, and Rehabilitative.
The objective was to determine which interventions in the EHSP were “Fully Covered,” “Partially Covered” and “Not Covered” by the NHIS Benefit Package. In her presentation, the NHIA’s Dep. Director of the Strategic Health Purchasing Directorate (SHPD), Mrs. Ruby Aileen Mensah Annan indicated that, of the four hundred and thirty-eight (438) services /interventions listed on the EHSP, hundred and eighty-five (185) representing 42% were fully covered by the NHIS Benefit Package, 35 (8%) were partially covered, whilst 218 (50%) of the services/ intervention were not covered.
It has been generally agreed that services/interventions not covered by the NHIS Benefit Package needed to undergo a Health Technology assessment or actuarial assessment to determine the cost-effectiveness and financial sustainability of the NHIS onboarding them.
The program was chaired by Dr. Isaac Noble Morrison (NHIA Board Member) and had the Deputy Chief Executive, Operations, Mrs. Vivian Addo-Cobbiah, and other Directors of the NHIA and Ministry of Health in attendance.
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com/Kwabena Nyarko Abronoma
