Gender Ministry organizes free NHIS registration for the aged

Nana Oye-Lithur, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection in collaboration with the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), have organised a free registration process of the NHIS for the aged. Nana Oye-Lithur speaking to the Ghana News Agency said empowering the vulnerable and disabled persons in the society is a loyal duty of the ministry to promote sustainable national development. She made this known on Saturday while addressing the aged who were being registered by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) at La, Teshie, Nungua, Ashaiman and Madina in Accra. �The ministry is ensuring an effective implementation of the National Aging Policy and has also established an Aging Desk to addressed issues related to the elderly�, she added. She said the Ministry has the obligation to protect the rights of persons with disability adding that the Ministry has a policy that allows people who are 70 years and above to be registered under the NHIS free of charge. �NHIA has consistently registered over one million Ghanaians as elderly and vulnerable persons and in two to three months, we will be registering Ten thousand persons above 70 years�, she added. The Ministry aside registering the aged also fed them during the exercise. Nana Oye-Lithur stated that the exercise will also be organised throughout Ghana, starting with the Greater Accra and Central Region. She said �the Ministry�s responsibility towards the elderly is to safeguard their rights, freedoms and welfare as provided in our constitution�. Mr Sylvester Mensah, Chief Executive Officer of the NHIA said last year 381 aged women and men, people with mentally disorders and leprosarium were registered free under the NHIS. He said the NHIA is working to reach out to senior high school students under 18 years. GNA noticed that the beneficiaries, both men and women, who were registered had their NHIS cards handed over to them instantly so they can access healthcare whenever the need arose.