Majority Leader Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin has praised the current administration's management of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), claiming significant improvements compared to the previous government.

Mr. Afenyo-Markin highlighted the severe challenges faced by the NHIS during the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration eight years ago.

He pointed out issues such as poor record-keeping and delayed payments to service providers, which led to hospitals declining to accept NHIS cards.

“You would go to the hospital and be told that NHIS cards wouldn’t be accepted.
So people even abandoned it. The records are there. Usage and patronage had declined to just around 1.5 million. Today, what do we see? There is an astronomical increase in the patronage of health insurance because the system is in place to pay,” Afenyo-Markin said.

He emphasized that despite ongoing challenges, the current administration has made notable progress, resulting in increased reliance on the NHIS.

“In spite of the challenges, we’ve achieved some significant successes. The increased patronage and reliance on the NHIS policy indicate that something positive is happening,” he stated.

Mr. Afenyo-Markin acknowledged that the NHIS system is not perfect but insisted that the current government has made substantial improvements over its predecessor.

“I admit that we do not have a perfect system. But we have done better than what we inherited. If hospitals were previously complaining bitterly and turning patients away due to unpaid government debts, that has changed,” he added.

The Member of Parliament for Effutu in the Central Region urged voters to recognize the progress made by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) when making decisions in the upcoming elections.

“It is important to remind those who are going to make a decision that the alternative is worse. The man who claims, ‘Give me the chance’ cannot do it better. We need to highlight the progress we’ve made,” he said.

He was speaking on Accra-based Joy News’ AM Show.