NHIA CEO Highlights Ghana’s Vision for End-to-End Health Coverage

By: Doreen Andoh

The Acting Chief Executive of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr. Victor Asare Bampoe, says the government is working on delivering a healthcare system that delivers end-to-end health coverage.
This drive- which is in line with the President, John Dramani Mahama’s vison of accelerating the delivery of Universal Health Coverage- encompasses prevention, early diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and financial protection.
In an exclusive interview with Forbes Africa, Dr Bampoe, outlined the government’s ambitious vision aimed at revolutionising Ghana’s health sector.
He said UHC is built on three key pillars: population coverage, service coverage, and financial protection, the latter being the most critical as it removes out-of-pocket expenses for medical care.
“The president emphasised the importance of UHC during his campaign, advocating for accessible healthcare that eliminates the barrier of cost among all other barriers.
“And it is important for the president and for us as Ghanaians and he highlighted that in his campaign before he became president.
“The financial protection bit is very important because you may be able to go to the hospital but may not be able to access healthcare because you don’t have the money.
“Our ambition is simple but profound. We want every Ghanaian, regardless of income, location, or background, to have continuous access to healthcare throughout their life journey.”
But unlike traditional models that focus primarily on curative care, Dr. Bampoe emphasised that true UHC demands a continuum of care — linking preventive services, primary healthcare, specialist care, chronic disease management, and end-of-life support.
NHIS and Financial Protection
Dr Bampoe, highlighting the National Health Insurance Scheme as a critical tool to achieving UHC, highlighted key activities and achievements of the NHIA that is currently pushing the three components of UHC-population coverage: service coverage and financial protection.
On financial protection, Dr Bampoe said the NHIA through the NHIS offer financial support to members so that they don’t have to pay out of pocket at the point of use.
Dr. Bampoe explained that despite the efforts of the government and the NHIA, the illegal phenomenon where service providers charge members illegal fees at the point of use, often referred to as co-payment is a major challenge the Authority was saddled with.
He predecessors, having attempted to resolve the problem, the illegality still lingered.
He reiterated the resolve of the current Executive management of the NHIA, which he leads to root out ‘co-payment’ to help boost public confidence in the Scheme.
He said the Authority has set up a committee to look into illegality to facilitate elimination.
However he said perpetrators attributed their actions to delay in claims reimbursements and low tariffs, which he assured that their concerns would be addressed.
Uncapping Benefits
Dr Bampoe said his assurance was based on a number of reasons including recent legislative reforms that have strengthened NHIA’s finances, ensuring predictable and timely reimbursements to providers — a crucial step in sustaining service delivery at all levels of care.
“The previous government had put in place an Act of Parliament -Act 947-which placed a cap on how much money comes into the National Health Insurance Fund.
“So, we were not receiving all the funds that we needed to receive. The president said he was going to remove it and that was one of the first things that he did. He signed the legislation to uncap the funding, which means that we are receiving much more funds than previously.
That’s number one. Number two, our law says that the funding should come directly to us and within 30 days a report should be made to the Minister of Health and to the authority. But it was not happening. What was happening was that the money was going into the consolidated fund, the big pot.
“That gave us a problem with predictability of funds and timeliness of funds. And that went down the value chain because we could not pay our providers in time.
“So now we have the funds that have been uncapped. And we also have the predictability because now the Minister of Finance says the money is going to come directly to us without going to the consolidated fund.
“What that does is that we can pay providers in a more predictable way,” he said.
Dr Bampoe said financial control was therefore critical at this point because wherever there are large sums of money, there is always a potential risk of misuse—a challenge not unique to Ghana.
“That is why I am pleased that the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) processes its claims electronically. The responsibility lies with us, to ensure that government funds are directed for the right purposes, with no money wasted.
“We’re therefore clearing backlogs, we’re paying providers on time, and that predictability gives patients confidence that services will be available when they need them,” Dr. Bampoe said.
“We’ve cleared over GH₵834 million in arrears to service providers, settling outstanding claims and ensuring timely payments,” Dr. Bampoe notes.
UHC- population coverage
Dr Bampoe said considering the importance of providing health coverage for a high percentage of a population towards the delivery of UHC, the NHIA has made significant strides in increasing its membership.
He cited innovations such as digital tools have helped to streamline processes, enabling automatic subscription renewals for formal sector workers and simplifying registration for others.
“The Authority has been in existence for quite a while, since 2003, and we’ve grown to 56 per cent of Ghanaians actually being on the Scheme and we wish we could even go further, and we will be going further.
“What the organisation has done is to use innovation to try and increase the scope. Apart from the concerted drive to get people on the scheme. There’s also using digital tools to make sure that people are registering.
“So, for people in the formal sector for example now you don’t have to go to a booth or go to see somebody to get your subscription renewed. It’s done automatically. Even for those who pay there’s a subscription-based way by which you can auto-renew digitally.
Expansion of Service
On expansion of service, Dr. Bampoe said that Scheme has seen significant innovations over the years, much more remains to be done to strengthen the system and expand access and coverage.
He noted that while the current NHIS covers about 95 per cent of all primary health diseases, there is a clear vision, led by President John Dramani Mahama, to deepen and broaden coverage.
“Our President, during his campaign, envisioned a health system that would not only maintain but expand coverage and accessibility, he said.
Highlighting the changing health landscape, Dr. Bampoe explained that Ghana is undergoing an “epidemiological transition,” with non-communicable diseases now accounting for 46 per cent of the country’s mortality rate.
“We are moving away from the dominance of communicable diseases, and we must urgently adapt our health system to meet this new reality,” he emphasized.
“To tackle this shift, the President is setting up the Ghana Medical Care Trust Fund, dubbed Mahama Cares, which will offer financial assistance to Ghanaians diagnosed with chronic illnesses, enabling them to access critical medical care,” he said.
He also mentioned that the president has also initiated a free primary healthcare for all policy.
Dr. Bampoe stressed that these efforts form part of a broader strategy to build an integrated health care system that provides seamless coverage — from basic primary health care to the management of complex conditions.
“I would like to share with you the vision of our President. When he was campaigning to be President, the scheme as it exists now covers about 95% of all diseases. He believed that we should expand it, deepen it, and make it more accessible,” he said.
These are some of the measures we are implementing to ensure end-to-end health care coverage for Ghanaians — from primary health care to the treatment of complex diseases, and everything in between.