NDC never introduced health insurance – Miracles Aboagye calls out Mahama

Dennis Miracles Aboagye has called out the flagbearer for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama for dishonourably appropriating the National Health Insurance Scheme to the NDC when the records clearly show that the policy was introduced by the John Agyekum Kufour-led NPP administration in 2003.

Describing the NDC’s presidential candidate as an icon of lying, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, who is the director of communications for the Bawumia campaign indicated that the National Health Insurance Scheme was established by the Government of Ghana in the year 2003. President John Agyekum Kufour was the leader of the country at the time and these facts are documented.

“Former President Mahama says the NDC introduced the National Health Insurance Scheme, this is another great lie being told by the flagbearer of the NDC. NHIS came into being in 2003, and John Agyekum Kufour was the President of the Republic. How can an opposition party claim credit for a policy introduced by a ruling party?” Dennis asked while presenting “The Next Chapter Series” under the headline ‘Unmasking the Lies of John Mahama’, on Sunday, 14 July 2024.

The communications director for the Bawumia Campaign Team played John Mahama’s video in 2016 when he appeared in Parliament to deliver the State of the Nation’s Address. Then President Mahama had this to say: “President Kufour continued the Economic Adjustment Program and under HIPC Initiative and debt reduction, implemented social intervention programs such as NHIS and the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Program, he passed these on to President Professor John Evans Atta Mills”

“In his own words, President Mahama said that President Kufour implemented NHIS and LEAP and passed these two social intervention programmes on to then President Mills. How then can the same person tell us today that Health Insurance was introduced by the NDC?” he asked.

The former president, at his recent media encounter, was categorical that the NDC introduced health insurance as a pilot project in Nkoranza and Damango. This assertion, according to Miracles Aboagye, is a barefaced lie.

The first remedy to health inequalities in Ghana, according to Miracles Aboagye, was the establishment of Community-Based Health Insurance Schemes (CBHISs) and the first most successful CBHISs took place in Nkoranza in 1992, the second took place in West Gonja Hospital in Damongo in 1996, as initiatives of the Catholic Church.

“The Catholic Church first introduced a mutual health insurance scheme in Nkoranza and Damango, not the Government of Ghana. The NDC Government had no role to play in these, and, therefore, cannot claim ownership of it” he added.

The NDC, according to Dennis Miracles Aboagye, has a penchant for running down the National Health Insurance Scheme. The Scheme was run down under the NDC administration, according to Dr Richard Anane, a former Minister of Health, under whose tenure the National Health Insurance Scheme was implemented.

He bemoaned the poor administration of the scheme. Dr Richard Anane said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration had failed to put in place adequate measures to expand the scheme.

Contributing to the debate on the budget statement on the floor of Parliament at the time, Dr Richard Anane said the National Health Insurance Scheme was collapsing.

“The NDC was bequeathed the National Health Insurance Scheme in very healthy conditions but what are we seeing today? Today, the cash and carry of the pre-Kufuor days has gained ascendancy and is even being formalized” he stated at the time.

Dr Anane further mentioned, “Over the past fortnight, the people of Ghana have received the shock of warnings from the health care service front and not from politicians that the NHIS is collapsing and also they, as NHIS cardholders were not to be entertained”

The health care system has been thrown under huge indebtedness to the bank and thence, was distressed, he pointed out at the time. Miracles Aboagye also showed the scorecard between the ruling NPP and the opposition NDC when it comes to the management of health insurance in the country.

“Between 2009 and 2016, the number of NHIS subscribers decreased from 12.5 million to 11.03 million. Under the Akufo-Addo administration, subscribers have moved from 11.03 million to 17.5 million between 2017 and 2024. This is an indication of the fact that we have performed far better than the NDC” he stressed.

Miracles also held that it took 1 to 3 weeks to renew the scheme under Mahama but one gets the subscription renewed instantly under the current government. No special illness was added to the scheme under the NDC administration.

“But under this Government, kidney, childhood cancer (leukemia, Wilms tumor) and sickle call have been added to NHIS. Recently, dialysis has been added onto the list of illnesses NHIS covers” he posited. He asked Ghanaians not to fall for the lies of Mahama since he had no better record to justify a comeback.

Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra

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