NEW JUABEN NHIS MAKES PROGRESS ...(Page 20)

Story: Nana Konadu Agyeman, Koforidua

The New Juaben Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (NJMHIS) has increased registration of its members.
The sheme has so far registered 94,964 persons.
The figure represents 70 per cent of the municipality's population of 136,768.
The Board Chairman of the scheme, Nana Kwame Oppong III, who made this known at the scheme’s second annual general meeting at Koforidua, said as of November 30,2007 the scheme had collected GH¢524,000 as premium and paid bills of approximately GH¢180,000 to the various designated health facilities.
According to the Board Chairman, the scheme received GH¢2.31 million support from the National Health Insurance Council (NHIC) to supplement payment of claims for those exempted from paying premium and to cater for administrative expenses.
Nana Kwame Oppong expressed appreciation to the NHIC for providing the scheme with one Toyota Pick-up and a motorbike, which he said had enhanced the mobility of the scheme's staff. He also thanked DANIDA and the New Juaben Municipal Assembly for their support.
The Board Chairman, who is also the chief of Jumapo, mentioned poor conditions of service for the management and staff, frivolous use of service by clients at the various designated health facilities and low staff strength as some of the challenges facing the scheme and called on stakeholders to help address such issues.
The Executive Secretary of the NHIC, Mr Ras Boateng, said the scheme, which had achieved a 50 per cent coverage in 143 districts across the country and was instituted as one of the key pillars to reducing poverty in the country, had 62 per cent of its members accessing free healthcare services.
He noted that although the rate at which the people were registering with the scheme and accessing healthcare services were encouraging, it had posed a serious challenge to the NHIC, since it had to pay huge bills of approximately GH¢32.4 million to schemes in the districts for the settlement of their indebtedness.
Mr Boateng said as part of efforts to address such challenges, a 15-member council had been inaugurated to oversee the smooth and efficient operation of the scheme, adding that zonal offices, which would serve as links between the council and the district mutual insurance schemes, had been established to monitor their operations.
For his part, the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Affram- Asiedu, expressed satisfaction with the rate at which people in the region were registering with the scheme, adding that as of September this year 1,060,970, representing 58 per cent of the region's population of 2,106,696, had registered while a total premium of GH¢2.67 million had also been collected.
To sustain the scheme, he advised the various service providers to charge realistic fees in order not to jeopardise its sustainability.
He commended the management of the various schemes, health providers and premium collectors for contributing immensely to the success of the scheme in the region.