North Dayi NHIA boss debunks reports against Joycelyn Tetteh Quashie  

The District Manager of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) in North Dayi, Edem Sebastian, has dismissed as false and misleading reports alleging that Member of Parliament Joycelyn Tetteh Quashie is sabotaging President John Dramani Mahama through a rebranded health initiative.

Mr Sebastian described the publication as “regrettable and unfortunate,” insisting it was a deliberate attempt to create friction between the MP and the President.

“Those reports in some media publications are completely misleading and should be ignored,” he said. “Rather than sabotaging anyone, the MP has been our strongest supporter in our ongoing drive to register more residents onto the NHIS.”

Speaking to journalists, the North Dayi NHIA boss accused the anonymous authors of the story of seeking to undermine the Authority’s mass registration campaign, which he said had benefited immensely from the MP’s personal sponsorship and collaboration.

He explained that the initiative being implemented by the legislator, dubbed the Free Health Insurance Renewal and Registration Exercise, is a private intervention to help her constituents and is unrelated to President Mahama’s Free Primary Healthcare Agenda, which has not yet commenced in the district.

According to him, after the NHIA office appealed for support to meet its annual registration target, Joycelyn Quashie was the only stakeholder who responded.

“We started operations in July this year and are expected to register about 80 percent of the over 41,000 residents in the district,” he noted. “But only a limited group of indigenes qualify for free registration, less than 40 percent, so most residents must pay before being enrolled.”

He said the MP’s decision to fund renewals and new registrations came at a crucial time when many residents could not afford the cost. “Joycelyn Quashie offered to sponsor free registration and renewal for her constituents. This is not the first time she has done so,” he revealed.

“Even before our district office was created, she collaborated with the Kpando NHIA to register her people and personally paid for it.”

Mr Sebastian expressed shock that such a gesture had been “twisted” in the media to malign the MP, stressing that the story lacked credible sources or evidence.

“The publication didn’t attribute the allegation to anyone. That alone shows the story was fabricated,” he said. “We have not received any directive from anywhere to register everyone for free, so the claim that the MP is rebranding a presidential initiative is baseless.”

He suggested that the false report might have been motivated by internal political rivalry and cautioned against drawing the NHIA into partisan conflicts. “I suspect this is an internal party issue. We are a state institution and must not be dragged into any political squabbles that could derail our work,” he warned.

Mr Sebastian reiterated that aside from the MP, none of the other stakeholders approached by the NHIA had offered assistance toward the registration exercise.