The District Manager of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) in North Dayi, Mr. Edem Sebastian, has dismissed as false and misleading repor
The District Manager of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) in North Dayi, Mr. Edem Sebastian, has dismissed as false and misleading reports alleging that the area’s Member of Parliament, Joycelyn Tetteh Quashie, is sabotaging former President John Dramani Mahama through a rebranded health initiative.
Describing the reports as “regrettable and unfortunate,” Mr. Sebastian said they were deliberately crafted to sow tension between the MP and the former President.
“Those reports are completely misleading and should be ignored,” he said. “Rather than sabotaging anyone, the MP has been one of our strongest supporters in the ongoing effort to register more residents onto the NHIS.”
Speaking to journalists, Mr. Sebastian accused the unnamed authors of the story of attempting to disrupt the NHIA’s mass registration exercise, which, he said, had benefited significantly from the MP’s sponsorship and collaboration.
He explained that the MP’s initiative, Free Health Insurance Renewal and Registration Exercise, is a personal intervention to support her constituents and is entirely separate from President Mahama’s Free Primary Healthcare Agenda, which has not yet been rolled out in the district.
According to him, following an appeal by the district NHIA office for stakeholder support to meet its annual target, the MP was the only one who responded positively.
“We began operations in July this year with a target to register about 80 percent of the over 41,000 residents in the district,” he said. “However, only a small group—classified as indigenes—qualify for free registration, representing less than 40 percent of the population. The rest must pay before being enrolled, making it difficult to meet our target.”
He added that the MP’s intervention came at a crucial time when many residents could not afford the registration fees, which was affecting the Authority’s performance indicators.
“Hon. Joycelyn Quashie stepped in to sponsor free registration and renewals for her constituents. This isn’t the first time—she previously collaborated with the Kpando NHIA to register residents and personally covered the costs,” he disclosed.
Mr. Sebastian said he was surprised that such a goodwill initiative had been “twisted” in the media to tarnish the MP’s reputation. He specifically criticized The Campaigner newspaper, which first published the report, for failing to provide credible sources or evidence.
“The newspaper didn’t attribute the allegations to anyone. That alone shows the story was fabricated,” he stressed. “We have not received any directive from any authority to register everyone for free, so the claim that the MP is rebranding a presidential initiative is baseless.”
He suggested that the publication may have been driven by internal political rivalries and cautioned against dragging the NHIA into partisan controversies.
“I suspect this is an internal party issue,” he said. “The NHIA is a state institution and must not be drawn into political disputes that could undermine our work.”
Mr. Sebastian reiterated that aside from the MP, none of the other stakeholders approached by the NHIA had offered support for the district’s registration campaign.