President John Dramani Mahama has directed the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to pay government subvention for the treatment of kidney patients to private hospitals undertaking dialysis.
The move has become important as government says it recognises the financial burden imposed on patients who seek renal dialysis, especially from private facilities.
The Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, while inaugurating the Governing Board of the Ghana Medical Trust Fund on Monday, October 13, 2025, announced that the records of non-communicable diseases in the country are alarming, necessitating the need for government intervention.
Akandoh explained that the government has decided to pay the equivalent of what is offered to those seeking care at public facilities to those private institutions, so that the patients top up with the remaining amount.
“…so the current arrangement for payment of dialysis is that if you go to public health facilities, we have a maximum amount of money we pay per session – around GHC499, about GHC500. What we have realised is that there are people who also go to private facilities, and so His Excellency the President has directed us to give them the same amount paid to public facilities.”
He explained, for instance, that “if you go to private facility A and they are charging you GHC1,000, the government will pay GHC500, and you top up, to be fair to everybody.”
The Minister added that the President hopes to have established the necessary structures by the end of his tenure to fully realise the full potential of the policy.
“So, the CEO of the National Health Insurance has been directed accordingly to take up that challenge. This Board of Trustees hopes that by the end of his tenure in office, we would have established the enduring structures, programmes, protocols, and interventions that are required and necessary to fully realize the potential of this groundbreaking primary health care program.” However, as a board, “this is a virgin space.”
He acknowledged that the Fund, also known as Mahama Cares, will face some challenges, which he called on the media to help in dealing with them.
“We recognise and appreciate that it will not always be a perfect picture. We expect to meet challenges as we go along, but we hope that particularly those of you at the press, you support us in dealing with those challenges.”
MahamaCares Fund commences nationwide assessment of Ghana’s healthcare needs
