Include all drugs in health insurance - Pensioners

Winneba (C/R), Sept. 3, GNA - Pensioners in the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District of the Central Region, appealed to the Government to include all approved drugs on the list of the National Health Insurance Schemes. This would save the various Schemes from criticisms by members and ensure the speedy attainment of the objectives of the new national health delivery policy.

A spokesman for the Ghana Pensioners Association who is also a former Assemblyman of Agona District Assembly, Mr. Joseph Gyeedu Ortsin, made the call at Winneba at the weekend.

According to Mr. Ortsin, when the scheme took off early this year, clients who sought healthcare with their ID Cards received drugs prescribed by medical officers in government health facilities free of charge.

However, members, who attended hospital, were made to pay for some of the medicine prescribed with the explanation that they were not included in the drug list of the scheme.

This often sparked off heated arguments between healthcare providers, especially dispensary officers and aggrieved clients of the scheme.

Mr. Ortsin said even though the move might help reduce the huge bills of health providers, the trend if not checked would create problems for the Scheme, which would make it unpopular and discourage the people from embracing it.

Mr. Ortsin said investigations by the Association revealed that the law establishing the Scheme had only 500 drugs on the list.