The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) members’ use of its Mobile Renewal Service has seen a major increase in light of the evolving situation with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Available data reveals that the cumulative number of mobile renewals from January 2019 to May 2020 stood at 8,099,074.

From June 2019 to May 2020, the ratio of mobile renewals to total renewals gradually increased from 67.4% in June 2019 to 82.3% in April 2020.

As at the end of May 2020, total number of mobile renewals was 445,563, an increase of 19.5% over the 372,827 mobile renewals in April.

Subscriptions for children below 18 recorded the highest number of mobile renewals followed by the informal category, these being members outside the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) bracket.

Except for the Upper West Region, all regions recorded increases in mobile renewal enrolment between the months of April and May 2020.

NHIA’s executive management is pleased with this trend and says it is encouraging them to continue making good use of the Mobile Renewal Service whilst it urges non-active members to get back onto the Scheme actively in line with Ghana’s objective to attain Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Said the NHIA’s management in a statement released last week: “While COVID-19 continues to spread, it is expected that all NHIS members take action to prevent further transmission and reduce the pandemic’s impact by frequently using the Mobile Renewal Service which serves as a social distancing mechanism.

2019 Renewals

In 2019, a total of 9.1 million renewed their membership out of which more than 5.8 million members representing 70 per cent used the Mobile Renewal platform.

The Ashanti region recorded the highest number, followed by the Greater Accra and Brong Ahafo regions.

By the end of 2019, the informal sector which constitutes the only fee paying NHIS membership category represented 34.1% of the active members, an increase from 31.5% over the previous year.

Mobile Renewal Service is accessed by simply dialing *929# on one’s mobile phone and paying from one’s mobile money wallets to stay active.

Active Membership

The NHIS active membership rose from 10.8 million in 2018 to over 12 million in 2019. Ashanti Region recorded the highest active membership of 2.2 million followed by the Greater Accra region with 1.7 million.

The Brong Ahafo region scored third with active membership of 1.5 million and the Eastern was placed fourth with 1.3 million respectively. The Upper West region had the lowest active membership of 0.47 million.