Dr. Dacosta Aboagye, Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), has revealed that, according to the most recent data available, 24 Ghanaians out of every one million are suffering from end-stage renal disease.
The figure he provided was derived from the piloting of the free dialysis initiative, which was implemented for people aged 60 and up and those under the age of 18.
Dr. Aboagye told Sir Richie in an interview on Rainbow Radio 92.4FM that when the free policy is implemented in December, all NHIS-accredited facilities will be asked to offer the free dialysis initiative.
He informed the host that the government, through Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and his team, with the assistance of the NHIA, has completed the calculations, and the data available indicates that the government will require a minimum of GHC 20 million to GHC 57 million to implement the policy.
He then disclosed that ”out of every million Ghanaians, 24 of them have end-stage renal disease. So it is a simple calculation. Multiplying that by 30 million, you will get a figure of 1,200 persons with end-stage renal problems. This points to the fact that, if you put the total population together, the prevalence rate of those with end-stage renal disease is only 1,250.
This is also consistent with our third scenario we used in arriving at the number of persons who are on dialysis. This shows that we do not have starnge numbers and can use the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in providing funds for the implementation.
Dr. Aboagye stated that the Vice President, who is the presidential candidate, has demonstrated commitment in implementing the policy by providing funds.
He explained that the budget for the NHIS for 2024 is GHC 6.8 billion with a cap of 20 percent, and ”we have been asked to work out the capping of the 20 percent, and that is GHC 1.3 billion out of which we would take out the annual GHC 57 million for the cost of the free dialysis initiative. This shows the commitment of Dr. Bawumia towards the initiative”.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
He then indicated that the pledges from the NPP and NDC to decapitate the NHIS budget were a great promise, and if done, it would allow the NHIS to receive more resources in implementing the free dialysis initiative and other health conditions.
He further disclosed that the resources allocated for the various facilities to run the initiative have all not been used, and these amounts of money would be added to the ones to be used for the full implementation of the policy.
