About 1, 731 pregnant women in the Suhum Kraboa Coaltar District have registered to access free maternal health. This follows the introduction of the policy by the government last month. Mr Tulasi Kafui, Manager of the Suhum Kraboa Coaltar District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme, disclosed this when he explained the rationale behind the policy at a meeting with women’s groups at Suhum on Monday. He said the district secretariat of the scheme register between 60 and 80 pregnant women a day. Mr Kafui dismissed assertions by some people that the policy was introduced to score cheap political points and said it was rather aimed at reducing the high incidence of maternal mortality in the country. He explained that there were a lot of pregnant women who could not attend hospital because of poverty and have to resort to drinking concoctions, with their dire consequences. Mr Kafui said the policy was to save pregnant women from the high cost of hospital bills. He however cautioned women that the policy was not a license for them to have babies at short intervals without planning their families. He said the National Health Insurance Council was planning to phase out the mutual health insurance cards to be replaced with national cards to enable clients to access health facility in any part of the country. He advised clients of mutual health insurance schemes not to wait for their cards to expire before making attempts to renew them. Source: GNA