The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has given a waiver on waiting periods for persons who renew or register for their National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card to help fix the delays in activation of cards.

The waiver forms part of the strategies adopted by the NHIA to boost its membership drive, as it continues the NHIS week celebration, which was launched on Monday, November 15, 2021, under the theme, “NHIS: Using the Ghana Card for Expanding Access to Health Care.”

The waiver on waiting periods means that beneficiaries would automatically have their cards activated, and could instantaneously use their NHIS card to access health services at their chosen credentialed facilities across the country.

Dr Lydia Dsane-Selby, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NHIA, noted that the ability of the scheme to function efficiently is tied to the growth in membership, which allows for the pooling of more funds to provide quality health care.

According to the Chief Executive Officer, the creation of a mobile platform for the renewal of NHIS cards and the linking of the Ghana card with NHIS card, she observed, has created a growing interest among citizens. This is because, the transportation cost and time for queuing to renew and register for the card has drastically been reduced.

Dr Dsane-Selby, thus, urged philanthropists and stakeholders to take up the responsibility of registering and renewing cards for less privileged persons in society.

“We also implore religious bodies, civil society organisations and corporate entities to organise renewal parties where the cost of NHIS membership is catered for”.
Dr Dsane-Selby

Ga Mantse Calls for More Support for the Scheme

The Abola Mantse, Nii Ahene Nunoo III, who chaired the event on behalf of the Ga Mantse, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, hailed the scheme, noting that NHIS is the best health intervention in the country.

Nii Ahene Nunoo III called for support of the scheme. He thus, described the membership drive as timely, since the country is at a crossroads of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected many lives.

“As they say health is wealth and so a nation’s wealth is the health of its people”.
Nii Ahene Nunoo III

Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, the First Lady, at the launch of the NHIS celebration in Accra, also emphasised the need to enrol more people into the scheme. She urged Ghanaians to enrol into the scheme with the mind-set of improving health care delivery on sustainable basis, to help the country achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

“This means more innovative measures to ensure the NHIS is felt by all, as a reliable social safety net. We should continue to create partnerships, drawing on the expertise and capacities of partners from different disciplines and sectors”.
Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo

The maiden edition of the NHIS week celebration in 2020, has helped the authority engaged 748,884 people across the country, where some 302,000 Ghanaians were newly registered. This year’s event is expected to record more subscribers, due to the efforts put into the celebration.

Activities delineated for this year’s celebration included: the airing of a documentary on childhood cancer and family planning, a poster exhibition, and the organising of floats and roadshows in selected districts.

There will also be a renewal and registration exercise across districts using the Ghana card, and a public lecture, as well as the launch of customer service centres at some selected health facilities.