The Bono East Regional Health Insurance Authority, in a special exercise, has freely renewed the National Health Insurance cards for students in six public Senior High Schools.

The exercise covered also some members of the public to enable them to have access to health care in the region.

About 700 people, including students of the Mount Carmel Girls Senior High School in Techiman, benefited from the weeklong exercise aimed at encouraging people to renew their cards on time to access quality health services during emergencies.

George Opong-Dankwah, Bono East Regional Director for the NHIA disclosed this on Wednesday during a blood donation exercise organized by the NHIA at the Mount Carmel Girls Senior High School to mark the 20 years of the scheme operations in the Region.

According to Mr. Opong-Dankwah, the exercise was part of measures to inspire people to register with the scheme, to achieve its purpose of ensuring quality health services for the public adding that, the NHIA has put in place effective measures to address the co-payment system affecting the smooth running of the scheme.

Mr. Opong-Dankwah mentioned that co-payment committees have been inaugurated in all the district and regional offices of NHIA while front desks have been established in most of the major health facilities to check the billing systems of the scheme.

He reiterated the need for card bearers to always confirm they were active and that of their family members because they would not know the time that they may need help in emergencies or accidents.

He noted that the gesture to involve students whose cards had expired and could not renew due to financial constraints and other challenges was a very good intervention to assist them in accessing affordable and reliable health care timely even when they were in school.