National Health Insurance Scheme: Ghana National Gas Company to register 10,000 Ghanaians on to scheme

At least ten thousand (10,000) Ghanaian residents living along the country's oil and gas enclave are to be enrolled in Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for free.

The prescribed health sector panacea being promoted would cushion pupils, local farmers, traders, and majority of the unemployed residents in the communities connected to the operations of the country's oil and gas activities.

The offer would take place in seven districts in Western Region in the next few weeks as officials of the National Health Insurance Scheme move from one geographical location to another to carry out the registration exercise.

The beneficiary districts are, Jomoro, Ellembelle, Nzema East, Ahanta West, Mpohor, Shama, Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) etc.

The primary reason for doing this, according to the company, is to ease the burden of health care service delivery on all residents of its host communities or catchment areas.

This gigantic move, the company explained, follows attempts being made to reduce the current global harsh economic challenges facing families, institutions and all development sectors in the country.

On Tuesday, (day one) of the registration exercise, the Ghana National Gas Company, in collaboration with the National Health Insurance Scheme, (NHIS), registered more than one thousand residents at Atuabo, where the exercise kicked off without any blemish.

Initially, the company had anticipated that the Nzema enclave would record a reasonable number, and possibly produce just around one thousand beneficiaries.

But, this feeble target, they realized subsequently, could be exceeded in the end, and therefore, the initial projections conducted immediately had to be adjusted following the mass interest generated by residents and the high numbers recorded on the first day.

The socially healthy, and friendly health exercise, the company emphasized would continue in the next three days in Atuabo, before moving to the other host communities across the region.

Stephen Donkor, Senior Manager, Community Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility, said the company is so far satisfied with the turnout numbers and turnout of events.

He said the company is in a better position to promote the social well-being of all residents of its host communities through this social intervention geared primarily towards building a healthy relationship with the communities and a healthy environment with healthy people

The Senior Manager in charge of Community Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility, observed that the roll out plan would be followed accordingly to ensure that all communities expected to benefit from the exercise would participate fully to make the exercise meaningful.

"At this point, people will be concentrating on the issue of bread and butter. They want to see what they will eat today, or what will follow next, forgetting that there is a future, there could be an emergency, and what do I rely on if the emergency sets in, so we decided to cushion people even though they might not be conscious of it, we want to pay attention to it. Let us register them so that in case of emergency, they can have something to rely on"

The Western Regional Manager of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIS) Emmanuel Reinfred Okyere, led his team of officers to the registration center to assist in enrolling members of the Atuabo community into the National Health Insurance Scheme.

Speaking in an interview with journalists shortly after the first day of the exercise and the general impression recorded, the manager, highlighted the significance of the exercise which is the first of its kind and obviously aims at closing the demand and supply gap in the health sector.

Emmanuel Reinfred Okyere reiterated that the National Health Insurance Scheme remains the best health policy to have been introduced in Ghana.

He recalled the dark days of the cash and carry system and the difficulties many Ghanaian patients had to go through to access quality health care service delivery in the country.

"NHIS is the best thing ever to have happened in our country and we must all be proud of that," he concluded.