Some of the beneficiaries
A total of 5,000 beneficiaries from five districts in the Northern, Savannah and Upper East regions have been registered under Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), through Hereafter-Ghana (MHP)’s health support programmes.
The initiative forms part of MHP’s 1Child 1NHIS project, one of the social intervention programmes of the organisation that provides individuals access to free basic healthcare services nationwide.
The project began in August 2021 and has so far registered a total of 102 pregnant women, representing 2%; 315 aged people (60 years and above) representing 5.1%, and 4,583 children and youth, from three months to 17 years respectively, representing 92.9%, without charging these group of people any fee.
Some of the beneficiary communities include Zoozugu, Kpene, Namandu, Kpanvo, Cheshe, Guunaayili, Dimala, Dugshegu. Ngaring, Busunu, Banvim Manguli, Gbulahi Bila and Manguli Kukuo.
The rest are Kunyevula, Zugu, Zugu Dabogni, Zugu Kushibo, Kumbungu Newton, Voggu, Kpalisogu, Kushibo, Botingli, Nyerizegu, Zangbalun Yipielgu, Saakuba, Wuba, Asawaba/ Dungu, Nyankpala North and Nyankpala South.
The Executive Director for Hereafter-Ghana, Alimatu Sadia Nuhu, said, “The idea of the 1Child 1NHIS project came into operation when in March 2021 during one of our financial support programmes, we came across a family in rural Denkyera who had a child suffering from malnutrition but did not have access to NHIS.
“We decided to support the family financially by registering them all on the NHIS scheme. This was when we took it up as an organisation to create opportunities for the underprivileged in the northern part of Ghana.”
According to her, the project seeks to widen the scope of the Ghana Universal Health Coverage Goal for rural communities through healthcare support for the underprivileged across the country.
“As an organisation that is responsive to the health needs of people, the project also aims at providing financial access to quality health care for those who are not financially stable and cannot afford to pay for their hospital bills.
“Another benefit of the project is that we also allocate days to renew the NHIS cards of the beneficiaries whose cards have been expired, for free.
“During our interaction with our beneficiary communities, we discovered that until our visit, most of the pregnant women in these communities did not know NHIS cards are free for pregnant women, which has prevented them from attending antennal care due to financial constraints,” she said.
She disclosed that Hereafter-Ghana believes that good health is the hallmark of every individual, and that access to healthcare should be a privilege to every individual.
BY Eric Kombat