BE AMBASSADORS OF HEALH INSURANCE SCHEME (PAGE 36)

The Kadjebi District Health Insurance Scheme has held its first annual general meeting at Kadjebi with a call on members to be ambassadors of the scheme to prove sceptics wrong that the scheme was a political gimmick.
The Deputy Volta Regional Manager of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Ms Justine A.R. Okyerewa, who addressed the meeting, said most people had come to realise the truth that the policy was strictly non-partisan and that it was really fashioned out to pool resources to provide affordable and easy access to health for citizens with the view to reducing poverty.
She admitted that at the initial stages there were logistic constraints, frequent power outages, misconceptions on medicines, rifts between the scheme and service providers, among others.
She, however, said many challenges had been addressed.
She disclosed that the authority was seeking legislative amendment to decouple children from their parents so that by the next academic year children could register whether their parents were card bearers or not.
Ms Okyerewa announced that a three-member committee, the first of its kind in the country, had been constituted in the region to monitor both providers and schemes to ensure that the right things were done in the interest of clients.
In an address, the Kadjebi District Chief Executive, Mrs Kofi Adjei Ntim, said the assembly had nurtured the scheme with GH¢20,000 for salaries of staff, utilities and operational activities.
He said as of December 2007, the scheme had registered 45,641 members out of a total district population of 51,599, adding that 13,669,cards were issued.
Mr Ntim said the scheme mobilised a total of GH¢39, 890.94 by December, 2007 and commended the board of trustees, management staff, general assembly and all those who helped in diverse ways to build the scheme.
The board chairman, Mr J.M.K Adisi, said the scheme grew through leaps and bound in ensuring that members in the district subscribed and benefited from it.
He expressed the hope that by the end of the year the scheme would register about 98 per cent of the population.
Edie Nikoi, Accounting Consultancy of the external auditors of the scheme stated that accumulated fund stood at GH¢41, 207.73 while the net premium stood at GH¢104,289.05 as of December, 2007.