Indigenes refuse to register with district Health Insurance Scheme

Wa, May 23, GNA - Many indigenes within the Wa Municipality have refused to register with the district wide mutual health insurance scheme because they are not prepared to be classified as poor people. Mr John Bosco Zury, the Scheme Manager told the GNA at Wa on Tuesday that most of the people in that category regarded it as an offence to be identified as poor before they could enjoy free medical care.

He said to address the situation, his outfit had intensified the campaign to sensitise the people on the concept and that they had opened more registration centres at strategic locations such as lorry parks markets and Out Patients Departments of hospitals and clinics to ensure the scheme got a wider coverage.

The Wa District Wide Mutual health Insurance Scheme comprises, Wa Municipal and the two new districts of Wa East and Wa West. Mr Zury said 32,124 people, representing 14 percent of the total population of the three districts had registered for the scheme and that about half of the number had received their identity cards entitling them to free medical services.

To date, almost 207 million cedis had been paid to the health facilities in the three districts in claims on account of 4,478 subscribers who had received medical care under the scheme, he stated. According to him, 666 million cedis had so far been received from the Central government since the scheme became fully operational in the area in January this year.