Twum Boafo defends health insurance for all

Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Free Zones Board, Kojo Twum Boafo, has defended the National Health Insurance Scheme as a critical social intervention programme that must continue to serve all segments of the Ghanaian society irrespective of one’s class, ethnicity or social origins.

According to him, the Mahama-led administration is working to ensure that every citizen of Ghana is provided with quality and affordable healthcare as a fundamental human right that must be enjoyed by all.

Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, he explained that the National Democratic Congress holds an ideology that is people centered and recognizes that everybody and, especially the vulnerable members of society, are given equal access to potable water, housing and quality health care.

“ I am a socialist, and I believe that every effort must be made to support the NHIS because it is a surer means of ensuring that citizens of this country are kept healthy and live to the fulfillment of their dreams and aspirations and to contribute their quota towards the national development effort,” he said.

Twum Boafo has not taken kindly to false publications spreading across on social media that the NHIS had collapsed and that the 37 Military Hospital had served notice that the NHIS cards could only pay for part of the cost of treatment patients received at the hospital.

He described such publications as unfortunate and a deliberate attempt by some elements to cause mischief, sabotage and deride the impact that an important national programme was making in saving lives.

Kweku Baako Jnr, Managing News Editor of the New Crusading Guide, observed that such false publications on social media had become too many and expressed disgust at such items as a blatant violation of ethical standards of journalism.

Meanwhile, Minister of Health, Alex Segbefia has announced that the National Health Insurance Scheme will now cater for patients suffering from diabetes.