Don't politicise health insurance policy- MP

Bimbilla (N/R), Jan 1, GNA- Mr Karimu Wumbei, the Member of Parliament for Wulensi in the Nanumba District, has advised members of political parties not to politicise the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) but should look at the benefits it would bring to the people and support it.

He said the scheme had been instituted to address the inequities the "cash and carry" system had brought to the people, especially those in the rural communities.

Mr Wumbei was speaking at the launch of the Nanumba District Health Insurance Scheme at Bimbilla on Wednesday

He said the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), had a health insurance component in it and wondered why organised labour was against the deduction of the two-and-half per cent of workers' contributions as seed money for the implementation of the scheme. Madam Agnes Tia, Acting Nanumba District Director of Health Services, said the Health Insurance Scheme was to increase access to quality health services in an equitable manner and urged stakeholders in the district to be involved to ensure that service delivery reached all the people in the area.

She said the government had provided 5.6 million cedis through the District Assembly to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) for free antenatal and delivery services.

She advised pregnant women to make good use of the facility to avoid complications during delivery.

Mr Seini Iddi, the District Chief Executive, said good health is a prerequisite for the development of any human society saying: "Development can only be achieved if the people have easy access to affordable health delivery services".

In a speech read for him, Mr Iddi said successive governments had struggled with the problem of financing the health sector with different strategies but all these had been plagued by the inability to access health care services, inefficient service delivery and non-sustainability of the various schemes.

He said a 17-member implementation task force had been constituted to create the awareness for the adoption of the Health Insurance Programme in the district.

The DCE charged the task force, opinion leaders and assembly members to step up education on the scheme.