Sekyere West inaugurates NHIS Board

Mampong (Ash), Feb. 10, GNA - Mr Samuel O. Kusi Appiah, Sekyere West District Co-ordinating Director (DCD) has urged implementers of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to combine idealism with realism in discharging their responsibility of ensuring smooth commencement and running of the scheme.

Mr. Kusi Appiah said societies do not change easily and that efforts be made to assuage concerns that the scheme was an indirect way of increasing the Value Added Tax (VAT) by two and half per cent and to overburden the people with unworthy taxes.

The DCD who was inaugurating, a nine-member board for the district's NHIS on Tuesday at Asante Mampong said the suggestion, if upheld would further deal with factors that might mitigate against the implementations and the running of NHIS processes.

The board, charged with an oversight responsibility of ensuring a successful implementation of the scheme has Nana Opoku Appau, Daahohene as its chairman and other dignitaries with diverse background as members.

He further urged the board members to work in concert with the district NHIS staff in rendering their sacrificial services to realise the objective of the scheme.

Mr Appiah announced that 100,000 people had already registered with the scheme, out of which, 10,000 had already paid up their first quarter of the premium.

Nana Opoku Appau, Board Chairman promised to propel his members to live up to the task for which the board was formed and inaugurated. He said, the government's desire to spread freedom and liberal democracy among Ghanaians to make Ghana a place worth living would be meaningless without a corresponding quality health delivery.

The chairman, for this reasons, impressed upon the people involved in the operations of the NHIS to live above reproach and also encouraged Ghanaians to patronise the scheme without reservations.

He appealed to the NHIS committees to properly resource the staff of NHIS to enable them step up processes towards the commencement of the scheme in June, this year.