The management of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has organized a blood donation exercise in various parts of the northern region to mobilize blood for the national blood bank as part of activities to mark their 20th anniversary celebration nationwide.
NHIA staff and members of the public took turns at the regional library in Tamale to donate several units of blood to support the national blood bank.
The exercise held on the theme: “20years of care, one pint at a time, donate for life” served as a medium for the NHIS management and staff to connect and interact with community members to promoting a deeper sense of unity and shared responsibility for public health.
The Director of Public Health Insurance Scheme, Mr. Hudu Issah, in a media interview on the sidelines of the exercise last Wednesday, November 15, said blood is an essential commodity healthcare delivery and underscored the importance of the blood donation exercise.
“The NHIS is 20years this year and everybody knows that our accentuation as far as operations is concerned is about the health of residents of Ghana and so blood is very essential and our blood banks in most cases are lacking enough blood to serve the people of Ghana and it is our intention whilst operating in the same space of promoting healthcare to organize ourselves and donate blood to the blood bank” he asserted.
Mr. Hudu noted one of the major successes of the social intervention policy 20years on is the elimination of out of pocket payment which was known as “cash and carry system”, stressing those who otherwise couldn’t have gone to the hospital because of money to pay, the health insurance has been able make it easy for them to attend health facilities to get quality healthcare without thinking of payment in anyway or any form.
The PHIS Director stated the NHIS moving into the future is completely going electronic and digital to curb the long queues at the district offices across the country. Beyond that, he posited a subscriber may not need a physical identification card to access health and merged the NHIS card with the National ID card also known as Ghana card.
“…You can also have an e-card and thirdly we’re expanding our benefits package; everybody knows that every social health insurance scheme will have some exclusion lists, [in our case, yes we have exclusion lists] yet our benefit package is very benevolent to the Ghanaian people but still we’re expanding, we’re adding childhood cancers and a lot of things to benefit package” he emphasized.
Mr. Issahaque Abdul Latif, the NHIS Northern Regional Director for his part said the policy has been impactful in the region as well. He intimated in spite of the challenges and reservations of some subscribers about the treatment they receive at the health facilities, about 95% of every one hundred people who report to hospitals use their health insurance cards.
“I won’t say we have done excellent because this is an insurance scheme and an insurance really thrives on people’s confidence in the scheme and secondly people’s knowledge about it. As we talk, out of ten people on the streets, when you ask them about health insurance, they will say they know about it and that is one of the success stories.
“They may have issues about the treatment they receive at the facilities but they know about it and that is one success story we can talk about health insurance” he stressed.
Mr. Latif urged the media to support the NHIS to combat issues of illegal payment also known as co-payment at the health facilities and also educate the public about the successes of the policy.
