Social Health Insurance: A must for everyone

'Un-sick' people- i.e. people who think they are not sick-often revel in the counterintuitive nature of systems which encourage the preempting of adverse health events. It does not make practical sense to pay for something you may possibly never use, and even worse to pay for something that others, who have paid nothing, may benefit from. But in this unfair conundrum lies the moral justification for most forms of health insurance.

A favorite text of many theologians and lay learners alike superficially references the perpetual inequalities in society, from Jesus himself. The book of Matthew 26:11 says 'The poor you will always have with you …' which appears to say that there will always be people who have not and those who have. Nonetheless, this message originates from the same missive which embraces incessant selfless acts of kindness to the needy, the hungry, the sick and any other category of vulnerable.

According to the World Health Organization, while social health insurance varies from continent to country to organization, it fundamentally involves some form of pooling of financial resources from members and other stakeholders, for periodic access by these members and, possibly their dependents, to some form of financially subsidized health care.

It would be grossly erroneous to assume that once there exists some form of social health insurance, all costs of healthcare should be borne by this system. Social health insurance serves to protect the vulnerable from catastrophic expenditure towards health, leading to impoverishment. In simpler terms, if someone who lives on less than a dollar a day cannot afford to put clothes on the back of his children, he certainly cannot pay the direct and indirect costs for seeking healthcare. Such people rely solely on the premiums paid by the rest of the society to seek healthcare. Bear in mind that these are often the same folk who are most at risk for illness due to poor sanitation, housing and nutrition.

So health insurance is not about the young, robust, recently employed graduate who lives and eats well and knows the right way to protect himself, but for those who do not have options with regards to their deteriorating health because they were born in a deprived area or circumstances of life pushed them into unfavorable conditions.

And that is the single reason why we should all participate. You may have no need for health insurance of any form now, but you may one day (changing scenes of life and all). More commonly, someone else needs it much more than you can ever know, and you may be literally saving a life while paying for your premium.

Thus, I implore you to ask yourself a harrowing question: Are you willing to watch a motherless child die because you do not see the point of Ghana's mandatory health insurance?