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| Burkinabe women enjoy Ghana''s free maternal health care |
3/31/2013 |
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Pregnant women in southern communities of Burkina Faso close to Bongo in the Upper East region are trooping to the town for free maternal healthcare.
The women, mostly under 18 years of age, are taking advantage of the proximity to the town to enjoy Ghana’s Health Insurance by pretending to be Ghanaians.
According to the Bongo District Manager of the National Health Insurance Authority, Clement Agana Ayamga, even though the laws of Ghana forbids outsiders from registering in the Health Insurance Scheme, these Burkinabe women with the support of some citizens of Bongo manage to get themselves registered.
“For the free maternal policy that is currently going on, we have pregnant women from Burkina who pretend that they are Ghanaians and register free and get their cards and attend hospital free.”
He said as a measure to stem the tide, they asked the pregnant women to bring their voters ID card anytime they want to register but that too came with its own challenge because most of the pregnant women are below 18 and did not have voters ID.
“So we still are not able to tell whether they are Ghanaians or Burkinabes,” he lamented.
In another development, a group called the Youth for Development and Anti Corruption Campaigners has accused some officials of the Navrongo National Health Insurance Scheme of engaging in corrupt practices.
According the group, some officials of the Navrongo NHIS are allegedly extorting monies from Burkina Faso nationals and registering them under the NHIS scheme.
The group in a revelation early this year reported of a similar deal through which some Togolese were registering under the Bawku National Health Insurance Scheme.
Authorities of the Bawku NHIS confirmed the report but said the residents needed to be blamed.
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