The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the Upper West Region achieved 79 per cent coverage of its 2020 client target at the end of September.

The scheme, at the end of the third quarter had enrolled and retained a total of 447,493 members as regards its target of 564,511 clients in the region. This figure indicates that about 1,634 persons either registered or renewed their cards daily in the first nine months of the year.

According to the Acting Regional Director of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr Samuel Lobber, the achievement was as a result of the mobile renewal strategy that was added to the services of the Authority, and allowed clients to renew their cards from the comfort of their homes.

He based his assertion on the fact that 60 per cent of the registrants renewed their cards using the *929# short code that was introduced by the NHIA two years ago, and said that the numbers would not have been feasible if they were relying solely on the manual registration.

Mr Lobber disclosed this to The Spectator at Wa on the link between the introduction of the short code to patronage of the scheme in the region

He noted that in the Upper West Region, the mobile renewal was very essential to residents as a chunk of their clients resided in areas that were quite remote from the respective district capitals and accessing their offices to renew their cards was quite challenging.

The Ag. Director said that the number of registrants this year, depicted improvement in the service delivery of the Authority in terms of widening access and ensuring effective customer satisfaction.

He stated that accessing health care was the primary right of every individual and incumbent on stakeholders such as the NHIA to collaborate with health care providers to ensure enhancement in  the universal health coverage.

“This we can confidently claim to have achieved with the renewal of the code which has reduced congestion at our district offices as people prefer to use the short code to renew their cards in the comfort of their homes”, he said.

Mr Lobber reiterated that with the integration of the NHIS card into the Ghana Card, access to health care would be easier as persons who misplaced their NHIS cards could still access healthcare with their Ghana Card “if they take the necessary steps to merge the two cards using the *929# code.”

From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Wa