The Administrator of the Ghana Medical Trust Fund (MahamaCares), Adjoa Obuobia Darko-Opoku, has disclosed that the flagship healthcare initiative is currently being implemented as a pilot phase to help the government assess its long-term financial sustainability.
Speaking on Citi Eyewitness News on Monday, May 11, she explained that the current structure is designed to help the government better understand the operational and financial demands of providing treatment for non-communicable diseases under the programme.
She noted that the Fund currently receives 20 percent of the National Health Insurance Levy, with additional support coming from donor groups, corporate institutions, organisations, and private individuals.
According to her, the pilot phase will provide critical data to guide future funding decisions and possible expansion of the programme.
“What we are doing now is a pilot for government because government has to understand what will go into what we are doing. I think the 20% from the National Health Insurance clearly is for them to understand what it means to treat these persons living with the non-communicable diseases,” she said.
Ms. Darko-Opoku explained that extensive actuarial assessments have already been conducted to determine the cost implications of treating various non-communicable diseases.
She said consultations with medical experts revealed that attempting to simultaneously cover all eligible conditions could overwhelm the Fund.
“We have done a lot of work, we have got the experts to do the actuarial analysis and given us the figures on how much it will cost to treat these cancer patients.
“We have dealt with our own subject matter experts in cancers, and we have decided that of all the conditions, if we decide to treat them all at the same time, the fund will sink,” she stated.
She said the Fund has therefore decided to begin by focusing on cancer treatment, with plans to gradually expand coverage based on lessons learned from the pilot phase.
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