Hundreds of people on Tuesday, November 10, 2020, joined the staff and management of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to mark the National Health Insurance Scheme week celebration.

The 2020 NHIS Week celebration was held in Ellembelle District of the Western Region where the three Districts of Nzemaland marched through the principal streets of Kikam, Esiama and Ampain amidst brass band music to encourage people to take advantage of the scheme.

This NHIS Week is celebrated every four years and the theme for this year's celebration was "Leaving no one behind".

So far 250,000 people in Nzema East Municipality, Jomoro Municipality and Ellembelle District have been registered for the NHIS cards and only 160,000 have renewed their cards.

Addressing the media about the celebration, the District Manager of Nzema East NHIS, Robert Edmond Nkrumah expressed happiness about the scheme and stated that the scheme had made a lot of progress since the inception of the scheme.

"It is not easy to embark on a 17-year-journey but we have made a lot of progress because Health Insurance was not like this, this is not we started. When we started, it was mutual that if you have the card in Nzema East Municipality, you can't use it access any healthcare in Jomoro District but right now when you have the card you can use it everywhere in Ghana", he stated.

"And we want to demonstrate to the world that Health Insurance has come to stay and we will not go backwards but forward ever so it will be very painful to extend that if you are a Ghanaian and you do not register and enjoy the services of the scheme," he added.

Mr Nkrumah took the opportunity to appeal to those who have not registered for the NHIS cards to quickly use the week celebration to do so.

"...so this celebration, our focus is we will not leave no one behind so we will appeal to those that their cards have been expired and have not renewed their cards should use this week to renew it," he emphasized.

"Now that we are celebrating our week if you renew your card today or you do a new one you can now use it to go the hospital. Today because of the improvement you can sit at home and dial *929# and renew your card without wasting your time to come to our office, you can now also use your Ghana Card with your NHIS card to go to Hospital and a time is coming we will only use Ghana Card to go to Hospital", he spoke about the improvement of the scheme.

He, therefore, concluded by disclosing that, "as I am speaking in Nzemaland we have three Districts where the NHIS operates, we have Jomoro District, we have Ellembelle District and Nzema East District, and if you add the three at least we have a population of 400,000 and those that are on the scheme are almost 250,000 and only 160,000 have renewed their cards so we will appeal to those that have not renewed their cards to use this week to do that."

Some of the participants who are also active members of the scheme told the media that the scheme had helped them a lot.

"I will use my husband as an example, he was admitted at Axim Government Hospital for two weeks and it was the Health Insurance that took care of his medical bills. It is good for us especially we the poor, the inception of Health Insurance has reduced the death rate in Ghana", one participant noted.

She ended by advising others to register for the Health Insurance cards to save cost.

"I will advise those that they don't have Health Insurance to register because it is very important and I have been advising some to register and I tell them that they should not wait till they get sick before, let us all embrace the Health Insurance because it is good for us all", she said.

The Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is a social intervention programme introduced by the government to provide financial access to qualified health care for all residents in Ghana and those who are on a visit to the country.