The Eastern Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira has appealed to churches to use part of their welfare funds to pay Insurance Premium for their needy members. He said, although the welfare scheme was good, the benefits of the National Health Insurance Schemes (NHIS) overrides that of the welfare in terms of access to free healthcare, hence the need for churches and organizations to hook the registration of its needy members to such existing funds. Speaking at the annual general meeting of the New Juaben Municipal Mutual Health Insurance Scheme, Dr Appiah Denkyira said the NHIS was the best option for access to healthcare and urged all to register and benefit from the scheme. He said since the NHIS covers about 95 percent of diseases in general, it was also necessary for associations and organizations to have internal insurance schemes to cover the 5 per cent ailment not covered by the scheme, adding that by such practice, one's health security was fully guaranteed in the event of such ailment. The Regional Director disclosed that measures were being put in place to ensure that all pregnant women were registered under the NHIS and had access to treated mosquito bed nets to curb the high prevalence rate of malaria in the region. He appealed to people to be conscious of their health and report to hospitals, especially those suffering from high blood pressure (BP), because the disease had become the leading cause of stroke and deaths of late. The New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Nana Kwasi Adjei- Boateng, expressed concern over the abuse of the scheme, resulting in the payment of huge bills far in excess of premiums collected per month. He therefore advocated restriction of visits to health facilities by the scheme members to check frequency and abuse by clients. The MCE expressed gratitude to the traditional bodies and the assembly members for the invaluable roles they played in the registration exercise and urged them to continue to support the scheme. The Koforidua-Adahene, Odefuor Boadi Asiedu, who chaired the function congratulated the NHIC for the good work being done and cautioned against the idea of centralizing the operation of the schemes. Source: GNA