Accra, Dec. 21 GNA - The Civil Servants Association (CSA) of Ghana on Sunday asked the Management of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to clarify whether the funding being provided for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) through workers' contribution was a loan or a gift.

The Association said if it was a loan, what were the terms of its repayment and on the other hand if it was a gift what approval did it seek from contributors through their representative on the SSNIT Board. A statement issued by the National Secretariat and signed by Mr. S.Y.A. Chigabatia, Executive Secretary of the Association, said while applauding government for transforming her dream into reality, the Association objected strongly to section 78(1)(b) of Act 650, which stipulated; "Two and one half percent of each person's seventeen and one half percent contribution to the Social Security and Pension Scheme fund" as part of the source of funding the scheme.

The statement also said the Civil Servants Association had never stood against the NHIS, which was to replace the cash and carry system that was inimical to their very existence.

It said it was to escape the negative effects of the cash and carry system that the CSA successfully piloted a Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) in the Ashanti Region in 2001 and thereafter resolved at its 9th Quadrennial Congress, in 2002 to adopt the scheme for its members countrywide.

The statement stated that the confusion created with the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme Act has made some of the regions to slow the pace of preparation towards the take off of the MHIS.

The CSA recalled that along side other organized labour groups had raised objections to some aspects of the National Health Insurance Bill, which has now been granted Presidential ascent in Act 650.

It urged the other regions to continue "the sensitisation processes and preparations for the take off of our Mutual Health Insurance for our members and their dependants in the rest of the country."