Jasikan, July 17, GNA - The Volta Region has recorded 150 percent patronage of the National Health Insurance Scheme with an 18 per cent jump in registration. Membership of the Scheme rose from 7,000 in 2006 to 51,095 members in 2007. Mr Raymond Avinu, Volta Regional Manager of the Scheme, who told the Ghana News Agency at Jsikan on Thursday, indicated that the new Biometric Identity Card would drastically reduce the time spent on documentation before patients were attended to by medical officers. He said the Scheme has shown to be the most reliable and affordable way of providing quality health care to Ghanaians who need to patronize it.

Mr Douglas Sogbloame, Jasikan District Scheme Manager of the Mutual Health Insurance Scheme said it paid a total of GH¢29,893 as medical claims on behalf of 10,816 of its members between January and May this year. He said the Scheme received GH¢147,313 from the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) in 2006 as subsidies and mobilized GH¢14,111 as premium during the same period. In 2007, Mr Sobgloame said, the Scheme received GH¢358,491 as subsidies from the Authority and paid a total of GH¢267,219 as medical claims to service providers and raked in GH¢37,910 as total premiums. He said in June 2006, it spent GH¢60,000 on 186 of its members who benefited from a health outreach programme in which they were operated on for goitre, fibroid, hernia, prostrate cancer and swellings.

Between July and December 2007, he added that a similar programme involving 149 members cost the Scheme GH¢36,000. Mr Sogblame said cross-district boundary cases and difficult terrain including "over-bank" communities and islands on the Volta Lake posed serious challenges to the implementation of the Scheme. 17 July 08