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The NHIA last week registered all poor and vulnerable people numbering about one hundred in a section of the Gomoa Botoku community near Winneba in the Central region. The exercise, which was done in collaboration with the Non-Governmental Organization, GobaCare Foundation, sought to provide the beneficiaries with free access to healthcare. In all, five pregnant women, seven aged persons and eighty-nine children were registered onto the Scheme. The identification of the vulnerable was done by the NGO, which has been operating in the community for sometime now. The NHIA as part of their contribution paid for the cost of registration and provided transportation to ferry the registrants from the Botoku village to the Winneba district office of the Scheme where they took turns to go through the registration process. They were each provided with an instant biometric NHIS identification card, which will qualify them for healthcare coverage at any NHIS-accredited or government facility. The beneficiaries, obviously excited, thanked the NHIA for making it possible for them to have access to healthcare. Executive Director of GobaCare Foundation, Patience Mensah expressed the NGO�s appreciation to the NHIA for responding to their call to register the identified vulnerable people in the community. According to her, the NHIA was swift in responding to their call to register the community members, a gesture she described as encouraging. Ms Mensah was also grateful to the NHIA for facilitating movement of the beneficiaries by providing a bus that transported them from the village to Winneba for the exercise and back. Central regional director of the NHIA, Mr Francis Oti Frimpong, under whose auspices the exercise took place, underscored the importance of the NHIS in providing financial risk protection against the cost of basic healthcare. According to him, the NHIS as a pro-poor program is committed to ensuring that all persons designated as indigent or vulnerable are not denied healthcare because of their socio-economic status. The Scheme over the years with the collaboration of other state agencies like the social welfare department has identified and registered millions of indigents for free. Official figures from the NHIA show that about 70% of the total subscriber base of the Scheme enjoys the service for free without paying premiums.