Gender Ministry, NHIA register 500 Kayaye onto NHIS
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in collaboration with the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has registered over 500 women porters (Kayaye) and their children in Accra onto the scheme for free.
The exercise, which included a party for the Kayayei, was held at the Mallam Atta market with participants from Mallam Atta, Madina, Maamobi-Nima, and Darkoman markets, all in Accra.
Nana Oye Lithur, the Gender Minister, said the Ministry in collaboration with the NHIA had already registered 10,000 elderly persons and more than 6000 prisoners free of charge onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
She said the Ministry through the Domestic Violence (DV) Secretariat as part of its mandate to implement the Domestic Act has established response centres at the Mallam Atta and Agbogbloshie markets as part of the broader strategies in the DV National Plan of Action.
This, she said, was in response to the continuous spate of kayayes in market centres and the poor living conditions of these vulnerable girls, coupled with inadequate counseling and other Gender Based Violence services to these persons.
“We are here today because we are targeting the vulnerable in the society, and we have social protection as our mandate; therefore we have identified kayayei, elderly persons, persons with disability, and young persons to register them unto the health insurance freely,” she said.
The Minister said the Queen Mother of the Mallam Atta market asked the sector to enroll the children of the Kayayei into school; therefore the sector will work on that to give those children same privileges as other children in the society.
She said the sector was not the body paying for the registration of the Kayayei onto the scheme because it is the core mandate of the NHIA to register the vulnerable in the society freely onto the scheme, adding that the sector was solely responsible for mobilizing the people for the exercise.
Mr Lawrence Amartey, Regional Director of the NHIA told the GNA in an interview that it has been challenging for the Kayayei to register with the scheme, since it was moved into a biometric system due to the fee payment and the long queuing involved in the exercise, which served as hindrance to performance of their daily trade.
He said the Authority mobilized people from all the regions with their equipment to help achieve the targeted number for the day.
Mr Amartey said the Authority was also educating the kayayei on the benefits and packages that come with the registration, as well as how to protect themselves from contracting diseases.
He said the exercise which is a periodic activity started two years ago and would continue to target the poor in the society.
“We have told them where to send their cards for renewal if they expire, and they will not be charged for that,” he said.
Source: GNA