Former President John Mahama has said his next government, if he wins the 7 December 2020 polls, will provide free healthcare to Ghanaians.

Speaking at the inauguration of his running mate, Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang in Accra on Monday, 27 July 2020, Mr Mahama said: “Ladies and gentlemen, as a social democratic party, we seek to harness the best qualities in all our people to transform the destiny of our nation”.

“In that direction, and as the fulcrum around which our health policy will evolve, we will before the end of 2021, introduce and begin the implementation of a Free Primary Health Care Plan”, he announced.

He explained: “This will make the provision of primary health care to all Ghanaians, young and elderly, free”. 

“Our free health care plan will guarantee a healthy people and provide the healthy workforce needed to accelerate our development”, he added.

According to him, “weak infrastructure does not propel growth and improvements in the quality of lives of a people”, thus, his investment into that area during his first term in office.

“This is precisely why, during my Presidency, I took aggressive steps to develop and consolidate our healthcare infrastructure, our educational infrastructure, our transport infrastructure and our digital infrastructure”, Mr Mahama noted.

“This is how to build a resilient nation”, he asserted.

He said “without creating and consolidating a developed infrastructure, no nation can resist global shocks. Just imagine for a second how Ghana would have been without the University of Ghana Medical Centre and the Ga East District Hospital as the number of COVID-19 cases keep rising”.

“The speed of building and consolidating our infrastructure has slowed down because the current government is largely ignoring the infrastructural buffers that build resilience in the face of misfortune.

“The NDC believes in Ghana’s future and will address the issues that affect you, each and every one of us”, he added.