Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia
Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia has announced that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) now covers childhood cancers and sickle cell, as part of efforts to improve affordability and access to screening and treatment.
He said the NHIS is absorbing all aspects of the treatment for childhood cancers, as well as the cost of Hydroxyurea, which is an essential drug for the treatment of sickle cell anaemia.
The Vice-President made the disclosure during the NHIA Roch Childhood Cancer event yesterday in Accra. He disclosed that reimbursement of childhood cancers under NHIS became effective July 1, 2022, adding that plans were far advanced to incorporate other forms of cancer treatment to the list of diseases covered by NHIS.
“We have started with four cancers amongst children for now, but we are determined to expand it in due course. As we know, incremental improvement is always the way, and exponential impact should not be compromised when it comes to healthcare,” he said.
The Vice-President emphasised that the future of the children could only be secured by eliminating all the factors that threaten their existence and quality of life.
“We are determined to make it happen and we should not relent. A diagnosis of cancer often appears to be a death sentence, affecting not just the subject but the rest of the family and entire community, unless well-structured and well-resourced interventions are at play to curb the burden. In many developing countries, cancer is on the rise and its consequent effect on economies is, and will be grave, if nothing is done to control it,” he explained.
Curbing challenge
Dr Bawumia further indicated that where countries had attempted to curb it, the perception of exorbitant costs of management had meant that many under-resourced countries had often avoided opening the Pandora’s Box for fear of being unable to manage those costs.
“Childhood cancers in particular have shown significant success rates in achieving desired management outcomes and often at manageable costs. I am glad that we, as a nation, are putting our children first and protecting them and their dreams. Sometimes, it is good to look at the value of investments and not just the cost,” he noted.
He pointed out that good funding streams will enable the NHIS to protect childhood cancers and other disease areas, calling for collective innovation in proffering solutions and investment to ensure the best outcomes.
“For a health project such as this great childhood cancer services to continue, all stakeholders need to bring their resources to the table. Expertise, awareness creation, early detection, treatment should be made available. The successful outcomes of provision of these are what will keep things sustained. Seeing our children being diagnosed early and treated and recovering will, certainly, encourage the NHIA and all other partners to continue to fund the services. We all have a role to play,” he stressed.
Technology, data
The Vice-President stressed the importance of technology, effective collaboration and data in health management as ingredients in healthcare that require data for valuable investments, with health data actually generating income for some countries.
He encouraged stakeholders to prioritise data capture related to childhood cancers and other cancers to ensure that investments in healthcare were well informed.
He also said for a middle income country, every cedi spent must be well thought through. Reducing wastage, he said, is a key means of enabling desired efficiency which will ultimately support the sustainability of this journey.
He pointed out that the desire to ensure a greater geographical spread of access to healthcare, especially for persons who require specialist care and medication, was the reason behind initiatives such as One Constituency One Ambulance, Medical drones for the delivery of essential medical supplies and blood, and the Agenda 111 projects.
“Government is also showing leadership and keen commitment to addressing geographical access limitations through Agenda 111 and we are keen to drive this and make it a reality. In these facilities that will be set up, we will be looking at providing all relevant and priority services. We will look at how we could also aid improved cancer control including childhood cancers in Ghana,” he pledged.
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