Pensioners Association launches medical scheme
The National Pensioners Association (NPA) has launched the Pensioners Medical Scheme (PMS) identity cards to enable members to access treatment for ailments that are not covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Advertisement
The PMS is a top-up medical scheme that will address the large and unexpected medical costs incurred by retirees under the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Pensions Scheme and the National Pensioners Association.
Benefits of PMS
Speaking at the ceremony in Accra yesterday, the General Secretary of NPA, Mr Edward Ameyibor, explained that the scheme covered over 62,000 members of the association.
He said the cards would be an evidence beneficiaries of the scheme would produce at selected health centres, pharmacies and laboratories to receive treatment and also to purchase drugs.
According to him, pensioners would have to carry both the NHIS and PMS cards to the hospital when seeking treatment.
Good health of retirees, he said, should be of concern to everybody, especially to the government and the corporate bodies they worked for.
“We therefore suggest to organised labour to show greater interest in the issue of post retirement health care, geriatric care and collaborate with pensioner groups to ensure the building of a national fund to help in assisting the aged who are mostly neglected,”he added.
Initiative laudable
Launching the card, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Haruna Iddrissu, commended the NPA for the initiative and emphasised that the welfare of the retirees was a priority to the government .
Other Trending Stories
He, therefore, gave an assurance of the government’s support to the sustainability of the fund.
Mr Iddrissu, however, advocated the establishment of a support fund with generous contributions from workers every month.
He said if GH¢3 was contributed every month to the fund, it would yield GH¢15 million yearly, which could cater for ailments of pensioners which the NHIS did not cover, adding that the resources could be managed by the NPA and could be relied on as a complement to the NHIS.
Support initiative
The Business Development Manager of Liberty Mutual Health, the issuers of the PMS card, Mr Franklyn Gonyo, indicated that every pensioner of the association contributed GHC¢4 every month to the fund.
In his closing remarks, the Head of Social and Gender Department of the Trades Union Congress, Mr Seth Abloso, urged the government and SSNIT to support the initiative and contribute to its development.