Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, a ranking member of Parliament’s Health Committee, has questioned the viability of the National Health Insurance Authority’s (NHIA) initiative to offer kidney patients under the age of 18 and over 60 free dialysis sessions.

Renal patients will receive all eight monthly dialysis sessions for free starting on June 1 and ending on December 31, 2024; however, Mr. Akandoh believes the government should instead subsidize the cost of the dialysis sessions.

Additionally, the NHIA announced that two free dialysis sessions per month would be provided to renal patients between the ages of 19 and 59.

Mr. Mintah Akandoh said in a media interview that the nation’s government needs to come up with a long-term plan for paying for patients’ dialysis treatments.

“The patients deserve better, and the government can come in [to help]. If you look at the payment or the purchase of vaccines, sometimes the National Health Insurance pays something and the government will also come in to pay counterpart funding, so this is not sustainable.

“It is only for six months and it is so because we are in the election period. All this while we have not heard the vice president speak about this.

“It is political because after December, there is no plan, so you go back to paying what you used to pay. And in actual fact, it has increased from GH¢380 to GH¢491.”