The issue of biometric data has become very topical in this modern world we live in, but the question most Ghanaians are seeking answers to is: “Why biometric at this time†when the country is in dire economic crisis with no sign of recovery and statutory bodies are floundering to meet their obligations while Ghanaians are now surviving only on hope?
This is because the thought of total collapse of our beloved country is as unbearable as that of a statutory scheme like the National Health Insurance Scheme.
The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has gradually started the biometric registration exercise which is expected to remedy certain challenges facing the scheme, which I consider to be very minute among the scheme’s challenges.
According to the NHIA, key objectives for implementing the Biometric Solution are to: issue Instant membership ID cards leading to improved card management; clean the membership database as a means of preventing duplicate records; and implementation of an effective verification (authentication) system at the point of healthcare service delivery.
These objectives I would say are not a remedy to the major problems facing the scheme in dispatching its core obligation of providing better free health care for Ghanaians under it.
Since the beginning of the year, the NHIS scheme has been under threat from various parties involved in its smooth running.
We have heard threats of withdrawal of services from the pharmaceutical companies and some private hospitals, including the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) comprising about 59 hospitals and 111 clinics spread across the country which have withdrawn from the scheme.
This has led to serious public discontent -- to the extent that some Ghanaians are threatening to abandon of the scheme because in their view services being rendered at health care facilities under the scheme are sub-standard.
These threats are the result of undue delays and inability to honour financial commitments made by the NHIA to its service providers and suppliers. This is now affecting the quality of services provided to members under the scheme, and these financial constraints are partly attributed to the crippling economic situation in the country at the moment.
Currently, the scheme is in the process of expanding the capitation system that has been touted as a very efficient provider payment method. After piloting for 26 months in the Ashanti Region, the capitation programme cannot be hailed as having achieved its expected outcomes.
Contrary to official statements, the capitation programme has had a crippling effect on the NHIS scheme in the Ashanti Region. This is because the capitation saw a withdrawal of services and surcharging to supplement fees by some private health care providers who felt the pre-determined fixed rate for the defined service they are to provide under the scheme for a month was incommensurate.
Again, one may ask “why biometric at this time†when the country’s economy is in turmoil and the NHIS scheme is “broke� This clearly indicates a lack of initiative in prioritisation by the scheme’s managers.
As a country, we all know about the failure of the National Identification Authority in their implementation of Biometric national identification cards; and also the Electoral Commission’s farce which occurred on the day of voting, when electoral agents faced technical challenges in verifying registered individuals.
All the predicaments these institutions faced should have been analysed so as to develop effective measures in addressing them in order to prevent a repetition of such scenarios before the NHIA started its biometric process.
Just imagine the havoc it will cause when a critically sick person needing urgent health care fails a verification process of his biometric ID due to a technological problem, as happened during the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections.
The premonition is that if the major problems facing the scheme are not addressed and a huge chunk of the scheme’s budget is spent on this biometric registration process, it will further accentuate the scheme’s woes -- which will tend to lead to its gradual collapse, leaving us with technologically-advanced biometric health ID cards but no scheme to attend to us.
The Author:
By Alfred Amoah
([email protected])
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