Bawumia announced this on Thursday (25 August 2022) in Accra, saying that reimbursement for childhood cancers under the NHIS became effective on July 1, 2022.
The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) now covers treatments for childhood cancers as well as the cost of Hydroxyurea, an essential drug for the treatment of sickle cell anaemia, according to Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia.
Bawumia announced this on Thursday (25 August 2022) in Accra, saying reimbursement for childhood cancers under NHIS became effective 1 July 2022, and plans to add treatment for other types of cancer to the list of ailments covered by NHIS are well underway.
“Our children’s present and future can only be secured if all the factors that threaten their existence and quality of life are eliminated. We are determined to make it happen and we should not relent,” he stated.
“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 said.
He further said, “Where countries have attempted to curb it, the perception of acutely exorbitant costs of management have meant that many under-resourced countries have 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.”
To ensure the program’s success and sustainability, Dr. Bawumia urged all parties involved to contribute their resources. She noted that “for most things to be sustained funding is required: good funding streams enable projects to be sustained and this is same in childhood cancers and other disease areas. We must all work together to be creative in coming up with solutions and investing in them, as well as in all other aspects that will guarantee the best results.
“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 etc should be made available. The successful outcomes of provision of these is what will keep things sustained. Seeing that our children are 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.”
Collaboration, data, technology
Dr. Bawumia emphasized the significance of technology, effective collaboration, and data in health management, noting that there are numerous players in healthcare who require data for valuable investments, with health data actually generating income for some countries.
“Clinical trials, research, budgeting, all require data. But data is not valuable if it is just that, and not useful. I will encourage us to prioritize data capture related to childhood cancers and other cancers to ensure that investments in healthcare are well informed. For a middle-income country, every cedi we spend must be well thought through and data will enable us to so.
“Reducing wastage is a key means of enabling that efficiency we desire which will ultimately support the sustainability of this journey we have embarked on… Click to see more
“It will be key for us to have standard platforms across private and public sector that enable easy access and top-quality data that inform work going forward. Extraction of population level data and its analysis will enable favourable investment and development of strategies that are directly impactful to our people.”
Initiatives like One Constituency One Ambulance, Medical Drones for the delivery of vital supplies and blood, and Agenda 111 Projects, which would see to the construction of District Hospitals in all districts lacking one, as well as the construction and or upgrading of regional hospitals, were all motivated by the desire to ensure a greater geographical spread of access to healthcare, especially for people who require specialist care and medication.
“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 reality. In these facilities that will be set up, we will be looking at providing all relevant and priority services and will look at how we could also aid improved cancer control including childhood cancers in Ghana,” he said.
Vice President Bawumia thanked First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo, the minister and ministry of health, the board chair of NHIA and his team, the CEO of NHIA, World Child Cancer, Roche, and all collaborators for their contributions to the success of this life-saving initiative.
He said, “What we have achieved here is no mean feat and we should not underestimate it.”
