The Central Regional Directorate of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has embarked on a float as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Clad in the 20th anniversary black and white T-shirts, the staff of NHIA accompanied by large numbers of its customers, paraded the streets of the ancient city of Cape Coast in grand style.
Dancing to music from a sound system, they processed through the principal streets beginning from the sprawling city of Abura Goil filling station opposite the Cape Coast new Sports Stadium.
They steadily passed along the Pedu junction portion of the Takoradi highway through Adisadel, Aboom Wells, and Kotokuraba market and ended at Chapel Square, near the Cape Coast Castle.
‘Health heroes: 20 years strong,’ was the theme for the float, which was dedicated to educating the public on the new NHIS innovation dubbed: ‘MyNHIS App.’
Whilst dancing to the beautiful rendition of Ghana hiplife songs, the excited staff educated the
public on their services and registered people onto the Scheme using the MyNHIS App on their smartphones.
They also schooled customers on the membership mobile renewal system that allows individuals to renew their subscriptions on their mobile phones.
The digitalized process is expected to improve the compilation and authentication of claims to reduce the chances of fraud in the system.
Earlier, the NHIA held a blood donation exercise in collaboration with the Ankaful Psychiatrist Hospital and the Cape Coast Nursing Training College.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of the float, Mr Fred Appiah, the Regional Director of NHIA said the anniversary was worth celebrating.
This is because they now cover a wide area across the districts to bring affordable health care to all and thus must be touted.
The Scheme, he noted remained the surest bet to achieving the Universal Health Coverage- and ‘ensuring all people in Ghana have timely access to high-quality health services, ir
respective of ability to pay at the point of use.’
Outlining some gains, he said the Authority targeted to register 1.5 million people in the Region but achieved 1.2 million in nine months with 463 providers.
He assured that his outfit was committed to ensuring an efficient system to deliver the highest quality service in the health care system.
Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African country to introduce NHIS in 2003 through an Act of Parliament (Act 650, Amended Act 852) and full implementation started in 2004.
Under the NHIS amended Act 852 (2012), every Ghanaian is required to enrol in a health insurance scheme.
It has contributed to improved health services utilisation and health outcomes.
The authority has a total of 166 district offices with five registration centres which report to the membership and regional operations’ directorate.
Source: Ghana News Agency