This paper examines the historical development of health policy in
Ghana within the framework of financial, geographical accessibility and the
availability of health care. We find that historically, health policy has been
urban biased, and largely focused on financial accessibility. Even Nkrumah's
free health care policy could not adequately address the problem of
inadequate health professionals and facilities in the rural areas.The study also
established that poverty is also largely a rural phenomenon.The poor benefit
less from the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).This situation
makes the NHIS lacksocial equity, the very reason for its being. We
recommend thatgovernment should expand health facilities in the rural areas,
and introduce attractive incentive packages to attract and retain health
professionals in such areas. And, there is an urgent need for rigorous criteria
to be developed by the NHIS to identify the very poor for health insurance
premium exemptions.