The campaign team of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has urged Ghanaians to reject the NDC’s efforts to mislead them into voting for the opposition in the 2024 general elections. This call follows recent comments by John Mahama, who claimed that the Free SHS and National Health Insurance policies were initiatives of the NDC.
Dennis Miracles Aboagye, Director of Communication for Bawumia’s campaign, addressed these claims during the social media show “The Next Chapter.” He accused the NDC of similar tactics in the 2008 election, which led to the dismantling of social interventions introduced by the John Kufuor administration.
Aboagye stated that the National Health Insurance Policy was implemented by former President John Agyekum Kufuor, countering Mahama’s assertion that the NDC piloted the policy in Damongo and Nkoranza. He clarified that the idea of a health insurance policy in Ghana arose because the Rawlings administration had replaced free healthcare with a ‘cash and carry’ system. This system’s challenges led the Catholic Church, with community and Dutch NGO funding, to introduce a health insurance scheme in Nkoranza and Damongo.
“It is never true that the NHIS was piloted by the NDC in Nkoranza and Damongo. It was the Catholic Church in collaboration with the community supported by a non-governmental organization, to finance it,” Aboagye stated.
He explained that the success of the scheme in Nkoranza prompted about 47 other communities to implement their versions of the National Health Insurance Scheme. This led the government, in 2003, to introduce mutual district health schemes, allowing residents to access healthcare in their registered districts.
Aboagye also disputed Mahama’s claim that the policy was nationalized by the late President John Evans Atta Mills. He clarified that in 2007, the government consolidated all district mutual schemes into one national health insurance scheme, providing a single health insurance card for use across the country.
“What the National Health Insurance card did was that the card you use for your district was replaced and one could seek health services from anywhere across the country,” Aboagye explained.
He urged Ghanaians to be wary of the NDC’s attempts to claim the NHIS policy, reminding them that the NDC had opposed its nationalization in 2007. Aboagye also criticized the NDC’s unfulfilled 2008 promise of a one-time premium for NHIS registration, noting that even the NDC’s current General Secretary, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, had described the promise as unrealistic.
Given this history, Aboagye cautioned Ghanaians to be sceptical of any promises from the NDC regarding the review of the Free SHS policy, warning that the NDC might undermine the policy.
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