The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) on Friday launched a program to register all prison inmates across the country under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

The event which took place at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons was intended to offer Ghana’s prison inmates financial protection against the cost of basic healthcare.

Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister, Nana Oye Lithur in launching the program said the needs of inmates were equally important to government hence the effort to safeguard their healthcare needs.

She mentioned that the registration of the inmates is one of her ministry’s collaborations with the NHIA to ensure that all vulnerable and special groups have financial access to healthcare.

The Minister said the Social Protection Ministry-NHIA partnership has provided access to healthcare on the NHIS to about six thousand aged and vulnerable people.

According to the Minister, prisoners are wards of the state and it is the responsibility of government to ensure they have basic necessities of life such as healthcare.

Madam Oye Lithur stated that the exercise will continue till all inmates in the nation’s prisons receive their NHIS cards.

She was grateful to the NHIS for their assistance in the entire process of registration of the vulnerable.

Chief Executive of the NHIA, Nathaniel Otoo in a statement mentioned that the mandate of the Scheme is to ensure that all residents in Ghana have access to basic healthcare.

He said the Scheme is enjoined by law to identify and enroll vulnerable persons in the country, and inmates of the nation’s prisons fall under the category.

The NHIA boss in explaining the Scheme’s involvement in the exercise, said the right to health is a constitutional guarantee and according to him, the NHIA and the Ministry were collaborating to ensure a discharge of that constitutional responsibility.

He also announced that he has directed his regional and district staff to form teams to undertake the special exercise of enrolling inmates.

On her part, the Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, Madam Matilda Baffour-Awuah said that about one million Ghana cedis is expended annually on medical care alone for prisons in Ghana.

Thwe NHIA boss promised to immediately ensure the accreditation of the Nsawam Prisons infirmary to enable them submit claims to the NHIA to bolster their Internally Generated Fund (IGF) sources, in addition to the relief of providing inmates NHIS cards for free.

The Nsawam prison holds about three thousand inmates.

The NHIA in 2014 enrolled about 1.5 million vulnerable persons onto the scheme for free and the Scheme has given an indication to do better in 2015.



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