Adinkrakrom (Ash), July 21, GNA – With barely one month for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to take off in the Asante-Akim North district of Ashanti, the entire members of two communities have refused to register with the scheme.
Even though selected people have been trained for the collection of the premium since the introduction of the NHIS, the people of Adinkrakrom and Magyida, have refused to contribute to the scheme in spite of efforts to make them realise the importance of the scheme. This came to light when Mr George Frimpong, the District Chief Executive paid a working visit to Adinkrakrom, Magyida, Onyimso and Pataban-Aniwoso on Wednesday.
Their refusal to register with the scheme, according to information made available to the DCE, ranged from the fact that while some did not see the essence of the scheme, other read politics into it claiming that it was the brain child of the ruling NPP government and therefore will not have anything to do with it.
However, during interactions with the communities, most of the residents expressed their willingness to contribute to the scheme and accused the facilitators of neglecting to register them. But the facilitators who were present at the interaction rejected the claim of the people and explained that most of them harboured the fear that they might abscond with their money after the collection. Mr Frimpong, who was obviously not happy about the situation, admonished the people to embrace the NHIS irrespective of their political affiliations and explained that the scheme was meant for all Ghanaians and not for any particular party or group of people. The DCE said it was about time people acknowledged good policies of governments, no matter one’s political persuasion.
Mr Frimpong asked them to shun tribal politics and let their health be of paramount interest to them and charged the various villages to initiate development projects and that the assembly will come to their aid where necessary. July 21 05
