Tamale gripped by Health Insurance fever

Registration for the National Health Insurance Scheme has gained momentum in the Tamale metropolis with many people rushing to register with the Metropolitan Mutual Health Insurance Scheme.

For the past two weeks long queues of people are seen daily at the premises of the MMHIS as early as 5am, seeking to be registered.

Tia Ibrahim, one of those in the queue on Monday said that he was registering with the scheme because he saw its benefits at first hand when he took his son to hospital three weeks earlier.

He said at the hospital, while he was struggling to mobilize money to pay for the drugs supplied by the pharmacy, a friend of his who happened to have registered with the scheme was treated without having to pay any money.

Mr Ibrahim said that Monday was his second day in the queue but he would not be deterred by delays and would ensure that he and his family were registered with the scheme.

Zenabu Tahiru, who was also in the queue, said initially they were deceived by some individuals in their area not to register with the scheme because they said it had no future.

However, she said those who deceived them have themselves registered and are benefiting from the scheme.

MMHIS manager, Hudu Alhassan said that for about a month now, his staff had been working over time as a result of the massive turnout by people seeking to be members.

For the past three weeks he and the staff had been working on Saturdays, in order to give everybody the opportunity to join the scheme.

To reduce the pressure on the staff and to facilitate the registration process he said 76 people had been recruited to go to the communities to register applicants.