Teenage parents will not be registered under NHIS

Ho, Dec 01, GNA - The law establishing the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) does not make provision for the registration of teenage parents as dependants.

However, the mutual schemes are at liberty to introduce variations to suit their localities.

Mr Prosper Pi-Bansah, Ho District Manager of the NHIS, said this on Tuesday at a workshop for representatives of formal sector workers in Ho.

He, however, cautioned against a benefits system that would overburden the schemes and lead to their collapse.

The workshop was to facilitate the registration of formal sector workers for the take off of the scheme, which so far has roped in 30,000 people in the informal sector in the Ho District.

He said the coded registration was designed to make the system difficult to cheat and hinted that it could be the basis of a national identification exercise to be undertaken soon.

Mr Mawuko Tsigbe, the Public Relations Officer of the Ho District Mutual Scheme, appealed to potential members of the scheme to provide correct personal data on their forms as there would be follow-up verification.

Mr Harry Tayvia Volta Regional Coordinator of the NHIS said only Pharmacies with the capacity and track record for providing good quality drugs would be registered as service providers.

Concerns raised by participants include types of ailments to be covered under the scheme, whether students above 18 years could be considered as dependants and what becomes of members who might relocate outside their original places of registration.