Health Insurance Knowledge Centre to be Established in Ghana

Plans are far advanced for the establishment of a Health Insurance Knowledge Centre for the Africa Region in Ghana to build the knowledge and capacity of policy makers, managers and practitioners in the field of health insurance in Africa.
The centre is expected to provide expertise and training on health insurance to many countries and institutions across the world.
The Chief Executive of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr Sylvester A. Mensah, who disclosed this at the opening of a workshop in Accra yesterday to discuss a feasibility studies report on the establishment of the centre and chart the way forward, said the idea to set up the institution was put forward by the NHIA with support from its development partners.
He said the essence of the centre would be to make good use of the rich knowledge base of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme ( NHIS), which has become a global model for health insurance and widely cited by many academics as a worthy example of social health insurance.
He asserted that the centre would be opened to all interested persons and institutions across the world and would also deepen Ghana’s current position as a leading global model of social health insurance.
According to Mr Mensah, the global centre, which would be located in Ghana, was to provide the opportunity for knowledge sharing and acquisition in the context of health insurance.
He mentioned that the forum was also to build capacity of the personnel and to sell the idea of a health insurance learning centre to see how best it could be supported and financed.
The consultant working on the feasibility of the learning centre project, Dr Nicholas Tweneboah, indicated that the centre would be important in bridging the health insurance knowledge capacity gaps that existed in many countries as they related to theory, practice and research.
Dr Tweneboah was grateful to Pharm Access Foundation, the Uganda Martyrs University, Cordaid and the health insurance fund for providing support to the feasibility study.
A senior programmes manager and researcher with Pharm Access Foundation, Ms Christine Fenenga, noted that establishment of the centre would go a long way to improve knowledge of health insurance and make Ghana a hub where experts on the subject from many parts of the world would come to share and debate ideas relevant to enhancing existing health insurance systems.
The forum drew participants from Uganda, Nigeria, Germany, Denmark and The Netherlands.