NHIA Free Elderly Care Policy Takes Effect

The underlying health conditions of the elderly in all spheres of life got complicated by the global outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease.

Appreciating that the elderly deserved maximum healthcare and reassurance, Ghana Government has activated a national program known as the ‘Free Elderly Care Policy.’

This instant healthcare policy, embedded in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was introduced on December 9, 2022, to address the many health-related challenges faced by the older population.

This means the government is giving greater priority to covering the healthcare needs of vulnerable groups in Ghana, especially those within the age bracket of 70 and above.

With the support of the Ministry of Health, the NHIA Governing Board initiated the policy directive, following the successful launch of the digital platform dubbed, ‘MyNHIS.’

In fulfilling this policy, the President of the Republic, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo approved the policy pursuant to the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) Governing Board’s bidding.

The Presidential assent signaled a strong political leadership needed to deliver successfully, the nation’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC) agenda.

The policy guarantees a waiver of the mandatory 30-day waiting period and an exemption from the premium and processing fees payment, as a member of the Scheme.

The push strengthened Ghana’s goal of attaining Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by the year 2030, riding on the NHIS.

Universal Health Coverage is built on foundations of equity and rights to quality and affordable healthcare services, regardless of people’s geographical locations.

Impact

The policy is providing older persons with distinct, specialized, and complete healthcare in addition to the government’s Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) program.

This is making it crucial for addressing their healthcare-related concerns, leading to improving the life expectancy ratio of the older population in Ghana.

Since its inception, members of the Scheme who are 70 years and above have been exempted from paying “premiums” or contributions.

For the aged above 70 years to freshly sign up for the NHIS or renew their membership requires payment of only a processing fee of Ghc8 for registration and Ghc5 for renewal.

NHIA Digitalization enthusiasm 

The NHIA is leveraging the national digitalization drive to shift from a paper to a paperless regime. The Authority is continually building robust homegrown innovations geared towards saving income and improving efficiency.

Latest Innovation-MyNHIS App

Ending the year 2022, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) strategically introduced an online registration platform dubbed, “My NHIS.”

As a convenient mobile App solution, Vice President of the Republic, Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia officially unveiled the App to enable residents in Ghana and beyond to use their Ghana cards and sign up for the NHIS at their own convenience.

The APP operates on both Android and iOS smartphones and will issue digitized NHIS cards and provide a mechanism for the NHIA to fulfill its statutory obligations.

Similar to the NHIS Mobile Renewal platform, people can comfortably sit anywhere and use any mobile phone to sign up for the NHIS.

Significance

The App enables corporate clients and other citizens to use their Ghana Cards to register for the NHIS without necessarily visiting any of the NHIA district offices for the same service.

The new App empowers people to securely pay registration and membership renewal fees from their mobile money wallets, Bank cards, and other payment platforms.

Most importantly, the innovation delivers a vastly improved renewal experience to NHIS members as it saves time and money, thereby making the Scheme much more accessible to all residents in Ghana and beyond.

It is of utmost importance that Ghanaians home and abroad will take advantage of the new App to save time, and expenses, increase higher levels of convenience, eliminate data entry errors, and improve efficiency.