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NHIS is not
disability friendly - Social Welfare
Accra, March 16, GNA - A Resource Person at a seminar on
Persons with Disability (PWDs) and the National Health
Insurance Scheme (NHIS) on Friday said the scheme was not
disability friendly since it did not cater for the
specialized needs of the disabled.
Mr. Prince Lamptey, Programme Officer of the Community Care
Department of the Social Welfare, said the NHIS was
perceived from a general perspective instead of selectively
addressing the specific needs of PWDs.
"This is because aids for the disabled, including
spectacles, clutches, and wheel chairs which were deemed
expensive were excluded from the NHIS list. This is not fair
because what the Law assumes are the specialized needs of
patients are rather the basic needs of PWDs."
The seminar was organized by the Disabled Christian
Fellowship International (DCFI) under the theme; "Accessible
and Quality Health Care for the Disabled, Challenges of the
NHIS."
He said section 31 of part five (5) of the Disability Act
stated that the Ministry of Health shall provide free
general and specialised medical care as well as
rehabilitative and appropriate devices for PWDs, but the
NHIS was silent on this provision.
He said there was the need to review the law to enable the
PWDs to derive the maximum benefit because as it currently
stood, the basic need of the disabled were not provided
since they were deemed to be expensive.
Mr. Lamptey said another major problem with the NHIS was the
six months period between registration and the issuance of
the Identity Card as one could not access medical care even
when the need arose.
He said with the review of the law, health providers could
exercise some discretion to temporarily take care of PWDs,
adding that this would open a window of hope for a majority
who were not financially sound.
Mr. Lamptey said apart from the general problems FWDs faced,
they were also discriminated against at the Health
Institutions and called for a periodic workshop for health
personnel for the better management of issues concerning the
disabled.
He called for the establishment of a Disability Council to
serve as a conduit between the government and the PWDs and
also ensure that polices were implemented to the advantage
of the disabled.
Mr. Peter Bediako Puni, Operations Officer of the NHIS said
apart from the Private Mutual and Private Commercial Health
Insurance Schemes, government was fully supportive of the
District Mutual Health Insurance scheme since it catered for
all persons, including indigents.
He defined an indigent as a person who has no visible or
adequate means of income or nobody to support him or her and
that some of the benefits included physiotherapy, OPD
Surgical operation and emergencies, cervical cancer,
accommodation in a general ward and feeding.
Mr. Puni said the exclusive list had issues like assisted
reproduction, HIV/AIDS, cosmetic and aesthetic surgery,
heart and brain surgery, cancer treatment apart from breast
and cervical cancer and organ transplant among others.
He said the NHIS took care of about 95 per cent of
individual illnesses and though the minimum payment was
72,000 cedis and 480,000 cedis maximum, one could contribute
more if he had the means.
Mr. Francis Adjetey Sowah, Executive Director of the DCFI
said PWDs were not well cared for and that they had to pay
full registration fees before they could access health care
provided by NHIS.
He said the deaf experience communication barriers, as there
were no sign language interpreters at the health care
centers to cater for their needs promptly adding that
disability was everybody's lot anytime because anybody could
suffer from it.
GNA
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