NHIS covers cervical and breast cancers – NHIA

Breast and cervical cancers are covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the public must therefore not wait till the cancer gets to its worst stages before seeking care, says the Health Insurance Authority.

Head of Communications at the NHIA, Selorm Adonoo in an interview on UTV stated that breast and cervical cancers are comprehensively covered by the Scheme and expressed surprise why people suffering the condition will have to endure the agonizing pain for a long time before seeking treatment.

According to him, “most people think that cancers are costly to treat, perhaps that’s the reason why they wait that long before seeking proper medical help.

But the good news is that the NHIS covers breast and cervical cancers so why do you wait till it’s too late before reporting for medical treatment?” The NHIS has been said to run a very vast benefits package which accounts for about 95% of all reported disease conditions in Ghana.

He said the package includes conditions described as out-patient cases, and an extensive amount of in-patient department conditions. Mr. Adonoo said though people utilize the NHIS, his outfit intends to improve its education of the public so that members of the scheme have adequate information about the benefits the NHIS offers and that, he observed, will make it difficult for the members to be cheated when they go to seek healthcare.

He was of the view that most of the complaints the public has about the scheme could be resolved with the provision of the right information, and this is what according to him, his outfit has been doing in the last few months. When asked about comments that the scheme had collapsed, he entreated the public not to take such remarks seriously.

“The facts on the ground don’t support that claim. Just visit any of our registration centres and see the crowd there at any point in time waiting to be either registered for the first time or to renew their membership. If the ‘collapse’ assertion were true, why do people keep going to our offices to register to be part of the scheme?” Mr Adonoo wondered.

The NHIS is arguably Ghana’s biggest social protection program with a membership of 11.2 million. Last year, the President, John Mahama, commissioned a review of the scheme with a view to making the 13-year old safety net more sustainable, efficient, equitable and accountable as well as improve user satisfaction.