DHIS members receive more ID cards

Nkwanta (V/R), Dec. 16, GNA - The Nkwanta District Health Insurance Scheme have issued over 19,000 identity cards to new scheme members this year bringing the total number of card bearing members to 28,000. Mr. Karim Fuseini, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the scheme who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency in an interview at Nkwanta on Wednesday described the registration exercise as very encouraging. He said by March, next year, about 90,000 people were expected to join the scheme saying, "that would be half of the population of the district."

Mr. Fuseini said so far, 12,890 people have accessed health care in 21 health facilities, adding that the scheme has been able to pay a debt of 1.2 billion cedis between February and October, this year as medical bills for people who have accessed health care. He said the scheme has mobilized 500 million cedis as premium from the informal sector this year, explaining that for people who could not pay their contributions in full, the scheme has mechanism for them to pay by installment.

Mr. Fuseini however, expressed concern over the abuse of the scheme by members, saying it was because there was no limitation on the attendance to health facilities.

The PRO said the secretariat lack logistics to carry out its operations smoothly, adding that their only vehicle has broken down. Mr. Fuseini was grateful to the Nkwanta Area Development Programme (ADP) of World Vision International (WVI) for assisting the scheme to carry out education programmes relating to the scheme in 30 communities in the district. 16 Dec. 2006