Manwe (U/W), April 14, GNA - Only eleven people out of a population of two thousand inhabitants in Manwe, a community in the Wa East District have so far registered under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

This was made known in a speech read for the Manwe Naa, at a function addressed by the Member of Parliament for the area on Thursday. Mr Godfred Tangu, MP for Wa East expressed his displeasure at the low patronage of the scheme and appealed to his constituents and other Ghanaians, who have not yet registered with the scheme to do so without further delay.

Mr Tangu pointed out that the advantages of accessing health care under the NHIS as a registered member far outweighed making cash payment for one's treatment.

He said for instance, while a scheme member could attend health institution once or twice a year with his 72,000 cedis premium, a non-member was likely to pay for more than the cost of the premium, if he or she happened to attend hospital twice in a year. The MP urged registered scheme members to be prepared to cultivate the practice of making annual renewals of their membership, as the surest way of guaranteeing medical treatments for themselves and their dependants in times of illness.

Mr Tangu also advised parents to take advantage of the capitation grant, which allowed children to attend school up to the junior secondary school level free of charge to send their children to school. He reminded parents that education provided opportunity for hidden talents in children to be unearthed and developed for the good of society.

At the function, Mr Tangu received educational materials worth 7.5 million cedis donated by the Association of Ghanaians in Minnesota, United States for distribution to some selected basic schools in the Wa East District.

Mr Tangu expressed his gratitude to a former President of the Association, Alhaji Emmanuel Benson, who presented the items on behalf of the Association.

The materials included exercise books and reading books, pencils, erasers, files, glue and sharpeners.