SUBIN HEALTH INSURANCE BOARD INAUGURATED (PAGE 29)

Story: George Ernest Asare, Kumasi

A NINE-MEMBER board of directors was inaugurated last Friday to supervise the activities of the Subin Sub-Metro Mutual Health Insurance Scheme in Kumasi to ensure efficiency in its operations.
The inauguration of the board was also to encourage the management of the scheme to a devise means of expanding their operations to enable as many residents as possible to join the scheme, and source for quality and affordable health care delivery.
The board is yet to elect its chairman because two of them could not attend the inaugural ceremony. The two were the Presiding Member for the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Nana Baffour Kesse, who represents the traditional rulers in the Kumasi Metropolis and Mrs Adobea Addo, a banker.
Those who were sworn in by Justice Solomon Kofi Achina, a High Court Judge, after they had been introduced to the management and staff of the Subin Sub-Metro Mutual Health Insurance Scheme were Reverend Appiah Kubi (Christian representative); Alhaji Audu Musah (Muslim representative); Ms Joyce Serwaa Asiboah (Assembly Member for Anlo-Nfante-Newtown); Sir Dennis Agyei (a Legal Practitioner); Dr Eric Quashie and Dr Danso Abiam (medical officers); and Mr Daniel Nkrumah, the Subin Metro Administrator.
In her welcoming address, the Ashanti Regional Manager of the National Health Insurance Authority, Mrs Leticia Osei Poku, urged the board to initiate policies and programmes that would streamline efficiency in the financial activities of the scheme as a way of sustaining its operations.
She pointed out that as a board, they were not to assume a day to day supervisory role but were mandated to analyse the annual budget of the scheme and approve it, as well as supervise the operations of the scheme to enhance the smooth transaction of business.
Mrs Osei Poku said that the gains of the scheme since it started operations a few years ago had now become a testimony to the public, and this had encouraged people to join the scheme in their numbers.
She said with the expectations of the people now soaring in terms of the quality and affordable health care delivery they would receive as members of the scheme, it was important for the board to ensure that there was efficiency in the operations of the scheme as a way of retaining those who would join.
This, she said, would entice as many Ghanaians as possible to become members of the scheme.
Explaining, Mrs Osei Poku said it was important for everybody to join the health insurance scheme because with quality health care delivery, the health of the people would improve, thereby enhancing productivity and a high standard of living.