The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has joined forces with the Rebecca Foundation to improve Childhood Cancer treatment in Ghana.
This was concluded on September 27, 2021.
As part of this initiative, the First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo made a commitment to build a hostel at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital where children undergoing cancer treatment can stay with their families who abandon treatment due to the cost of transport and other expenses. The 54-bed hospital, however, was commissioned last week.
The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) after a long campaign, will now absorb the cost of treatment for Childhood Cancers.
The announcement was made today by the First Lady, Mrs Akuffo-Addo at the launch of the NHIS week in Accra.
She categorised the four main childhood cancers as Burkitt Lymphoma, bone marrow cancer often seen in the jaw, Wilms tumor, cancer in the kidney, Retinoblastoma, cancer of the back of the eye and acute lymphoblastic leukemia, cancer of the blood.
All these, according to her, contribute 60% of childhood cancers in Ghana, and this initiative by the NHIA is a major intervention for the fight against childhood cancer.
Speaking at the event dubbed ‘NHIS: Using the Ghana Card for Expanding Access to Health Care’ she again mentioned that the Authority has also successfully included Family Planning to the benefits package from January 2022 to help curb the rate of maternal and child mortality rate in the country.
As part of the NHIS week celebration, all Ghanaians who register or renew their NHIS membership will enjoy automatic activation. There will be no waiting period.