High Tariffs On Drugs Threaten NHIS – Pharmacists

The sharp increases in tariffs and taxes on imported pharmaceutical products have placed an extra stress on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and a threat to its sustainability.

Mr. Noah Acolatse, chairman of the Community Practice Pharmacists’ Association (CPPA), who made the observation, lamented that the undue delay in the payment for services rendered by CPPA member pharmaceutical companies was not the best.

Addressing the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of CPPA in Accra yesterday, Mr. Acolatse wondered why the NHIA continued to keep the money due the pharmaceutical associations in the banks, while members of the association went to the same bank for loans with interest to make loans available to the scheme.

The AGM was on the theme “The business of Health – A pharmaceutical perspective.”

Mr. Acolatse lamented that while supra natural agencies like the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank were negotiating for cheaper and affordable medicines like anti-retroviral and anti-malarials for the poor, the Food and Drugs Board was also imposing high fees on drug regulations.

He said currently, pharmaceutical companies in the country paid between 20,000 to 150,000 dollars annually to the Food and Drugs Board “Just to maintain their product licenses in Ghana.”

“This kind of situation will translate into an additional five to ten per cent increase in medicine cost in Ghana. Tariffs and high cost must not be a barrier to access medicine,” he said. He warned that if the high payments to the FDB were not reduced, small pharmaceutical companies would fold up and that would result in unemployment and the smuggling of counterfeit drugs into the country. There were talks on ‘Financing Healthcare in Ghana, Repositioning community pharmacy’ and ‘Cost and profitability in Community Pharmacy Business’ respectively by Isaac Adams and Kofi Abu, both members of the CPPA.

The Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kunbour, in a remark made on his behalf, gave the assurance that, the ministry would dialogue with the relevant stakeholders to discuss the grievances of the CPPA.

He acknowledged the leading roles of pharmacists in the country’s health delivery programmes. He cautioned pharmacists against prescribing class ‘A’ drugs to patients without consulting qualified doctors explaining those drugs acquired “over the counter” could lead to drug abuse.

Source: The Ghanaian Times/Ghana