… largest contributor to multidimensional poverty
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has revealed that about 14 million of the Ghanaian population do not have health insurance coverage.
According to the Service’s 2022 Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey, deprivation in health insurance coverage is the largest contributor to multidimensional poverty in both the second quarter (34.4 percent) and first quarter (33.6 percent) of the year.
It observed that multidimensional poverty in the first and second quarter of 2022 stood at 13.6 million representing 44.1 percent and 14.4 million representing 46.7 percent respectively.
According to the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report, a person is multidimensionally poor if he/she is deprived in at least one-third of the weighted indicators. The indicators that contribute most to multidimensional poverty in Ghana are lack of health insurance coverage, undernutrition, school lag, and households with members without any educational qualification.
“44.1 percent of persons are multidimensionally poor in the first quarter against 46.7 percent in the second quarter. On average, the poor individual is deprived in 47.3 percent of weighted indicators in the first quarter and 46.6 percent in the second,” the GSS report stated.
The survey indicated that more than half of the population in nine regions including Ahafo, Western North, Bono East, Upper East, Upper West, Oti, Northern, Savannah, and the North East Regions are multidimensionally poor – ranging from 53.0 percent to 77.6 percent.
The North East Region therefore emerged as the poorest with a record of 77.6 percent in both quarters under review, while the country’s capital, Greater Accra Region, has the lowest poverty rate. “Among the indicators for multidimensional poverty, health insurance coverage and improved toilet facility have the highest deprivations,” it indicated.
About the Survey
The Survey by the Ghana Statistical Service is being conducted to obtain quarterly and annual data on household final consumption expenditure and a wide scope of demographic, economic, and welfare variables; including statistics on labour, food security, multi-dimensional poverty, and health status for research, policy, and planning. Findings from the maiden publication present highlights from the first and second quarter food insecurity, multidimensional poverty, and labour statistics reports.
The NHIA
The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has been in the news recently, for owing 78 health institutions across the country to the tune of GH¢51.4million as of December 31, 2021.
This is however in contravention of Regulation 38 of the National Health Insurance Regulations, 2004 (L.I.1809), which requires that a claim or payment of health service submitted to the scheme shall be paid within four weeks after receipt of the claim from the health care facility unless there is a legal impediment.
Apart from health institutions in the Volta, Ashanti, North East, Central and Bono East Regions, the NHIA also owes outstanding claims to some health institutions in the remaining nine regions. The number of facilities in the regions include nine in Upper East, three in Savannah, another nine in the Northern Region; nine also in Western North, 15 in Eastern, 18 in Upper West, one in Bono, two in Oti, and 12 health institutions in Greater Accra.
