Dr. Lydia Dsane-Selby, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) will today, Monday, November, I5, 2021 launch National Health Insurance Week under the theme: “NHIS: Using the Ghana Card for Expanded Health Service.”
The 2021 NHIS Week Celebration, among other targets, aims at increasing membership and creating awareness on childhood cancers and family planning.
The celebration will also serve as a platform to extend health care access by promoting the use of the Ghana Card to renew NHIS membership and also deepen awareness and knowledge of the NHIS benefit package.
Dr. Dsane-Selby said NHIA was working towards the achievement of Universal Health Coverage by Ghanaians by 2030 and worried that though 80 percent of the population was captured on the NHIS database, only 52 percent was active because of the unwillingness to renew their membership.
“The issue is staying active because it requires annual activation and at this moment, we have 15.1 million active subscribers.”
There are 4,291 credentialed health facilities across the country out of which National Community Health Planning Services compounds (CHPS) make about 55.1 percent.
Dr. Dsane-Selby expressed optimism that with the implementation of the Government’s Agenda 111, to provide health facilities across districts in the country, subscribers in rural areas would be assured of improved healthcare services.
Data from August to October 2021 indicate that the Bono, Upper East, and Upper West regions have the highest active subscriber population with a rate of 75. 71.8 and 66.3 per cents, respectively.
The Oti, Northern, and Greater Accra regions have the lowest active membership rate of 34.0, 36.3, and 39.5 percent respectively.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Kofi Atakora
