The National Health Insurance Bill being developed by the government required all Ghanaians by law to belong to a health insurance plan within a specified period of time.

The choice of a scheme will be voluntary but it will be mandatory for everyone to belong to a plan, Mrs Irene Agyapong-Amartefio, a member of the task force set up to work on the National Health Insurance Scheme said on Wednesday.

Mrs Agyapong-Amartefio told a day's consensus building seminar on the Draft National Health Insurance Bill in Accra organised by the Ministry of Health that the long-term objective of the government was to provide universal insurance coverage for all residents in Ghana.

Under the draft bill and the policy framework, services to be covered would include in-patient hospital care, outpatient care, emergencies and transfers.

Mrs Agyapong-Amartefio said health insurance, as a financing mechanism, would replace out-of-pocket payments at point of service. "People will pay a premium into the fund of their choice to obtain and retain coverage for the basic package of insured service with a defined group of accredited providers depending on the plan they belong to," she said.

Mr Moses Dani Baah, Deputy Minister of Health, said the bill would regulate the health insurance industry, create a national insurance fund and provide procedures for resolving conflicts.

A task force had been constituted to work out modalities for achieving the government's "avowed objectives of replacing the cash-and-carry system", he said.

A National Health Insurance Council would be set up to oversee and guide the national scheme. It will be an autonomous body established by an Act of Parliament.