Health insurance law next month

The Senior Minister and Leader of Government Business, J.H. Mensah has hinted that the legislation on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) will be passed next month. His disclose comes barely a week after the Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama announced that the bill would be laid before Parliament this year.

When passed, it will oblige every citizen of the country to contribute towards the scheme to ensure equal health delivery for all. Mensah who dropped the hint to newsmen in an interview in Accra, said as a demonstration of the government's concern for the aged, it decided to exempt them from contributing to the scheme.

The interview with the Senior Minister took place at the inauguration of the Christian Action on Aging in Accra (CAAA), a non-governmental organisation. According to him, the government would reimburse the scheme for whatever expenses it would incur by way of taking care of the aged.

Mensah indicated that the seed for the NHIS was to avoid the situation whereby only the rich could patronise the various hospitals because of the ever-increasing cost of health services. He stressed that the cost of health delivery was preventing many people from attending hospitals and thus predisposing them to premature death and denying the nation her rich human resources.

With 42 districts already operating the scheme on trial basis without legal backing, Mensah said there was the urgent need for the bill to be passed into law to streamline things. Earlier at the inauguration, the Senior Minister commended the youth for maintaining a high level of respect and love for the aged in society.

He expressed regret that most of the aged were living under highly deplorable conditions partly because they did not plan their lives well. Mensah therefore advised the youth to take a cue from their experience so that such a situation would not befall them.

The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG), Rev Dr Sam Prempeh, who inaugurated the CAAA, deplored some wrong perceptions that the public had about ageing. He deplored the ill treatment meted out to the aged and urged the public to get closer to the aged and learn from their experience.

The Moderator expressed the hope the CAAA would provide the platform for the aged to improve their lot and have a sense of belonging. Dr S.K.B. Asante, president of the Academy of Arts and Science, submitted that "the facile assumption that the aged would always be taken care of by our traditional African extended system or support system may no longer be valid in certain situations."

He therefore called for the protection and promotion of the rights of the aged while other basic human rights and freedoms such as those of other vulnerable groups such as children and the disabled were being pursued.