'42.88% People In Central Region Covered In Ghana's  National Health Insurance Is Not Encouraging'

Central Regional Director for the national health Insurance scheme(NHIS), Mr. Fred Appiah underscored the need for people in the central region to register with the NHIS for their own benefits. 

He said It is the hope and expectation of the scheme that the insurance in the central region, by the end of this year, 50% of individuals in all the township have their cards. 

"But looking at the records, only 42.88% have registered which shows that we have not achieved our expectations".

He mentioned that the causes as many people do not have faith in the insurance, saying, this is because most of the medications are not covered by the insurance and some facilities charge them for the medications which is covered by the scheme.

Mr Appiah made this remarks at the occasion of the 2022 brief performance review meeting in cape coast and its on the theme, the role of digitalisation in the modern healthcare delivery, recounting Ghana's ICT journey in the fourth republic.

He observed the illegal charging fees by pharmacists from NHIS holders will ginger them to fail to renew their card when it expired for lack of trust in the scheme.

In view of this, the management of the national health Insurance authority have put in place some measures to prevent such co-payment to prevent the scheme from collapsing.

He mentioned this month of december is the month of NHIS, so, one do not need to wait after a month before they visit the hospital with your card. 

"If your card has expired a year or more  it has been renew today to enjoy the benefits of the Scheme" Mr. Appiah lamented.

He further explained the new way that gives people the opportunity to use technology to register for their insurance card, "even if you have not registered before, you can register using the app. You can use it to register for others and also to make enquires about medicines and diseases or illnesses which are covered by the insurance.

In an interview with Soireenews.com, Mr Appiah appealed to members of parliament, benevolents, stakeholders among others to help register the NHIS card for the less privileges in the central region to enable them have access to healthcare before and after the christmas festivities.