SSNIT pensioners to set up medical fund

The National Pensioners Association (NPA) of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) on Thursday held a media launch of its Pensioners Medical Fund (PMF) to help meet emergency health needs of members.

The Fund, slated to be officially launched on June 18, next month, was being set up as result of difficulties most pensioners encounter in accessing health care.

It will be launched under the patronage of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene and would be chaired by Mr John Saka Addo, former Governor of the Bank of Ghana.

Mr Edward Ameyibor, General Secretary of SSNIT NPA, called on all pensioners to join the Association to enable them benefit from the Fund.

He said the Association afforded pensioners the platform to come together under one umbrella to fight for their common good and well-being.

“The offices of the Association have been established in all regional and districts Assemblies to enable pensioners regardless of geographical location to register with the Association and benefit from the Fund,” he added.

Mr. Ameyibor explained that the age profile of the aged made them vulnerable to all kinds of health conditions, many of whom were not covered under the National Health Scheme, which precipitated the need for a self-help effort by the Association.

According to him, all members would be levied an agreed amount monthly to be deducted by SSNIT and paid into the PMF account.

He said members of the Association stood to benefit from the Fund starting from next year, explaining that it (Fund) had been given a gestational period of one year to allow it to grow.

“The Fund will be insured against depreciation and lost,” he added

Mr. Ameyibor also appealed to benevolent individuals and institutions to support the Fund and encouraged young Ghanaians to take interest in it because they would also become pensioners one day.

Responding to whether the Fund was not an ambitious venture, he said, it might seem so but “a journey of a 1,000 miles starts with a step’ and that was exactly what the Association was doing.

“Under the Fund, members would have a better health care whether doctors were on strike or not.”

Source: GNA