Ghana is making efforts to achieve the internationally accepted target of at least 80% healthcare delivery by 2030. The rationale behind the launch of the Free Primary Healthcare Programme is to help achieve that target by ensuring that Universal Health Coverage reaches all Ghanaians, no matter where they reside, by making access free, especially at the primary level.
Countries that achieve Universal Health Coverage for their citizens invest heavily in primary healthcare delivery first and foremost. Generally, the health needs of people are mostly primary-health-related. Getting the fundamentals right makes the chances of having a robust health system greater.
The Free Primary Healthcare Programme is meant to remove financial barriers to accessing healthcare in Ghana. While the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is designed to reduce the financial constraints that burden a lot of people, inherent in the National Health Insurance system is the need to pay premiums. Even though the sums of money to be paid as premiums may not be exorbitant, it remains a barrier to many people who are unable to afford the premium payments, thereby affecting their ability to register and get onto the National Health Insurance Scheme.
To fix this challenge, the Free Primary Healthcare Programme is designed to plug that gap by making primary healthcare delivery less burdensome. It is to serve as a cushion for those who cannot pay premiums and get onto the National Health Insurance Scheme. The Free Primary Healthcare Programme is therefore not meant to replace the NHIS but to make it possible for even those who are unable to get onto the NHIS to access healthcare at least at the primary level.
Another challenge the NHIS presents is the fact that certain ailments may not be covered under the scheme. With the Free Primary Healthcare, however, one can simply go to a designated health facility and get checked for any condition without having to pay. When a person is diagnosed with a sickness or condition which is not treated at the primary level, there will be a referral to a facility higher in the healthcare delivery tier, and the NHIS may be required at that stage.
The Free Primary Healthcare Programme is therefore meant to augment what the NHIS is able to deliver and enhance access to healthcare delivery without doing away with any aspect of the NHIS.
The Free Primary Healthcare Programme is essentially an effort to change the country’s health delivery system from a curative endeavour to a predominantly preventive health delivery system by making primary health checks free. The aim is to encourage people to visit health centres to check their health status without financial burdens.
According to the Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, even though the name of the programme indicates the provision of healthcare at the primary level for free, it is not the free nature of the programme that should excite people.
“What resonates with people is the freeness of the policy, but that is even not the game changer. Although it is important, the free aspect speaks only to affordability. But it is more than that. We think it is about time we improved our preventive services and improve upon our health promotion aspect of healthcare delivery to be able to deal with early detection of diseases before they get to complicated levels.”
The Minister of Health, who was speaking in an exclusive interview with GBCGhanaonline, debunked suggestions that the Free Primary Healthcare policy is to replace the National Health Insurance Scheme or meant to run parallel to the NHIS.
According to Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, “every country is trying hard to arrive at Universal Health Coverage. In Ghana, our index is around 56%, and we are supposed to be hitting 80% by 2030. So the sure way to achieve that is to encourage people to check their health status more often and remedy situations before they become chronic or complicated.”
