|
"Register children independently
under NHIS"
Accra, Jan. 14, Ghanadot/GNA -
Mrs Cecilia Boateng-Mensah, Chief Executive Officer of
Unique Child Academy, a private daycare/primary school, has
advocated a system under the National Health Insurance
Scheme that would cater for the registration of children,
independent of their parents or guardians.
She also urged government to take a second look at the
National Health Insurance regulation with regard to the
exemption from payment of contribution on the basis of age.
Mrs Boateng Mensah, who made the suggestion at the Unique
Child Academy's end of year get-together at Haatso in Accra
at the weekend, said the provisions under the Scheme did not
act as safety-net for children whose parents were not
registered, thereby denying them access to healthcare.
She said: "There must be a system to automatically capture
children and register them at no cost, to ensure that the
child is given an unconditional access to healthcare".
NHIS officials she said could take advantage of the schools'
health centres among others to ensure that no child was left
out.
"Children are God-given assets and if well nurtured, can be
a future security to guarantee a lifetime support. The way
children are prepared to face challenges of the future will
determine whether society will enjoy the comfort of old age
and its accompanied security", she emphasized.
Mrs Boateng-Mensah noted that ill-prepared children would
become ill prepared adults tomorrow, a situation which would
not auger well for the country's progress.
She said it was rather unfortunate that due to economic
pressures, parents were unconsciously failing their
God-given responsibility to constructively develop children
but rather lavished them with gifts, expensive gadgets,
clothes and money.
"This development has the tendency to corrupt children," she
noted.
Mrs Boateng-Mensah commended government on the introduction
of the Capitation Grant and the Schools Feeding Programme,
adding that the interventions had brought a lot of relief to
many parents.
Ms Annie Adsorb, speaking on behalf of parents of the
Academy, commended management and staff of the Unique Child
Academy for its warm attitude towards the children under
their care.
She lauded the Academy's neatness, saying, "It will
inculcate in the children the need to keep personal hygiene
and healthy surroundings as they grow up."
GNA
|
