Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), has proposed methods that the government might take to lower out-of-pocket payments for renal patients.
According to him, dialysis is too expensive for those suffering from renal disease to handle on their own because the majority of them are unable to pay for these treatments.
“As a country, I can tell you boldly, if we are committed, we can pay completely for kidney care,” he told JoyNews.
“First and foremost, politically, we have been going back and forth on funding to NHIS,” he added, elaborating on the ways the government may ease the burden on renal patients. Kenya even covers kidney transplants. The rationale is simple: 90% to 95% of the monies are with them directly.”
“Secondly, we can put some levy referred to as syntax on some one or two products which are normally not consumed by the ordinary person but by people in a particular class and the inflows on that can go into a fund not necessarily with National Health Insurance.
“It can be the chronic disease fund or the peripheral disease fund which would go to the departments that take care of kidney care and other conditions like cardio diseases so that instead of the GHȼ700 cedis that is been looked at, you can retain GHȼ200 because GHȼ500 cedis has been paid for by this fund.
“Thirdly, we as a country can come together to take away all the taxes on any item that goes into kidney care. We can look at two or three consumables that affect the pricing and the state can procure them directly.”
Following the shutdown of the Korle Bu renal unit for over five months, discussions on what may be done to enhance renal care have been in the press for some time.
Various parties have recommended that the service be moved to the NHIS, but opponents argue that the plan lacks the financial resources to do so.
It is currently unknown what the next course of action will be. However, Dr Boye stated that a five-member group has been assigned to develop proposals to keep the kidney unit running.
