Accra, March 14, GNA - The National Health Insurance Council (HNIC) on Tuesday said the backlog of health insurance identification cards that were cleared in the Greater Accra would soon be issued to their owners.

The Council, which by law is not responsible for registration and issuance of cards, intervened to clear the backlog because of the increased demand for the cards in the face of limited resources the various districts' schemes were having.

Speaking at a media briefing in Accra on the update of the implementation of the decentralisation of the national health insurance scheme, Mr Ras Boateng, the Executive Secretary of the Council said there were 1,281,525 identification cards, which were yet to be cleared. He explained that an Information Technology firm was contracted to print all the outstanding cards for the various schemes.

He noted that a total of 7,673,998 Ghanaians representing 38 per cent from both the informal sector and exempt category, were registered with the district health insurance schemes and 3,947,334 have been issued with identity cards.

He said there are 6,130,063 people in the exempt population and those in the informal sector who had paid their premiums in full. Also included in this group are 901,204 people who are in the informal group who had paid in full but were going through the legal waiting period of between three and six months. Mr Boateng said 3,947,334 in who are in this category were those who were in the exempt group or fully-paid from the informal sector who have been issued with identity cards.

Mr Boateng said there was a backlog of 1,281,525 people qualified to be issued with ID cards but had not been issued yet but efforts were being made to clear the backlog.

"To this end, an IT firm in Cape Coast has been contracted to print all the outstanding ID cards for the schemes. To date, the firm has printed 152,651 cards for the schemes."

Mr Boateng assured Ghanaians who have registered but had still not received their cards that they have not lost the validity of their cards and that, "you will still have your one year validity period and this will start from the day the card will be issued."

He explained that cards from the collection points, which were about to expire would be sent back to the schemes for renewal before they would be issued to their various owners and that the exercise would be completed within some few months.

He noted that the scheme has achieved a good measure of success within its three years of establishment compared to similar schemes operating in countries like Tanzania, Nigeria and other countries like Britain and Germany.

"We are proud to note that health officials from Ethiopia last year visited Ghana to study our scheme and officials from Nigeria and Uganda are scheduled to visit us this year for the same purpose".

Mr Boateng appealed to those who have still not received their cards to exercise restraint whilst efforts were being made to clear the entire backlog.