Obuasi, Jan. 19, GNA - About 3,000 out of 98,000 people who paid their premiums for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) within Obuasi Municipality have been issued with Identity (ID) cards to benefit from the scheme.

Mrs Edna Gyau-Baffour, Managress of the Obuasi Municipal Mutual Health Insurance Scheme who disclosed this, said so far about 125,212 people had registered with the scheme.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Obuasi on Thursday, she said 10,323 people in the formal sector had paid their premiums as well as 10,204 people in the informal sector and 75,499 children. Mrs Gyau-Baffour attributed the slow pace of issuing the ID cards to the desire to prevent fraud and the size of those in the formal sector.

She said the scheme had put in place measures including working during the weekend and overtime during working hours to ensure that all paid up registered people were issued with their ID cards. "We come early and close very late whilst the shift arrangement is for the national service personnel with a permanent staff supervising them," the Scheme Managress said.

Mrs Gyau-Baffour said currently three health facilities, namely Bryant Mission Hospital, Saint Jude Hospital and Obuasi Government Hospital were being used for the scheme.

She advised clients of the scheme not to parade the three health facilities for health care when they were not sick, stressing, "The scheme is for them therefore, if they decide to attend hospital when they are not sick, the scheme will collapse." "If the system is abused, it will not augur well for the scheme," she said and advised their clients to avoid contracting diseases by maintaining clean environment.

Mrs Gyau-Baffour said some people had still not registered with the scheme and appealed to them to take advantage of the scheme and register "since it is a relief."