Gender Ministry provides free NHIS registration to more vulnerable people
The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, registered over 1.5 million poor and vulnerable people under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) last year.
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Over the past three years, for instance, 10,000 elderly people were registered under the NHIS to access free health care. under a similar package this year, 6,000 prisoners have so far been registered to benefit from the scheme.
The Minister of Gender Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, disclosed this in Accra yesterday during an outreach programme to extend the free registration exercise to head porters in Accra.
Exercise
“Today, over 500 head porters from Mallam Atta, Nima and surrounding areas will be registered to benefit from the NHIS and tomorrow, another 500 will be registered at Agbogbloshie. This forms part of the government’s commitment to caring for the elderly, the poor, vulnerable, and the less privileged in society,” she said.
She said, the health of the people was a priority to the government, adding that “we will continue to extend health care opportunities to the needy across the country.”
Renewal
the Director of Membership and Regional Operations at the NHIA, Mr Ben Kusi, urged the public to renew their cards promptly so that they can continue to enjoy quality health care.
“Any country that fails to care for orphans, widows and less privileged, is a failed country,” he said.
The director, therefore, commended the government for rolling out a number of interventions for “the care of these groups of persons.”
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Violence against women
The Leader of the Mallam Atta market women association, Mrs Asafoanye Ogbedee, was full of praise for the government for the initiative to provide for the health care of the people.
She, however, catalogued a number of challenges women in the area faced, especially in relation to domestic violence perpetrated by men.
“Rape cases have increased here because some of the young men take advantage of the young girls, especially the head porters, during the night. The girls end up getting pregnant. Sometimes they contract sexually transmitted diseases,” Mrs Ogbedee said.
She appealed to the government to provide scholarship packages for the education of needy children and a training programme for the head porters to make them economically independent.