District Chief Executives are getting personally involved in the campaign to get more Ghanaians to sign on to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Immediate mention can be made of DCEs for the Asuogyaman, Manya Krobo and Yilo Krobo Districts respectively, in the Eastern Region.

In separate interactions with Public Agenda during visits to the districts recently, stories were told of how considerable ground has been covered as regards District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes (DMHIS) owing to the personal involvement of the DCEs.

At Manya Krobo, Hon David Sackitey Asare, the DCE has dug into his personal pursue and paid a total of GH¢953 as premium for a hundred young people in the district who for one reason on the other could not afford the premiums.

They are mostly apprentices who genuinely believe in the NHIS concept but lack the capacity to access it.

Explaining why he had to do this, the DCE said, "This is an area I have personally involved myself. I want people to see for themselves the importance of the scheme. I also want to improve upon the national coverage."

According to him, great success has been achieved so far. "We have registered 90,314 people." This, he said, represents about 60% of the district's population and "We have targeted 80% coverage by December this year."

On the other hand, Hon Emmanuel W. Ntow Bediako, DCE of Asuogyaman has not been very lucky. His district has had a much tougher task. Coverage was about 45% and could be attributed to initial apathy arising out of politicisation.

"Initially people read politics into it but now it's ok," he told Public Agenda. However, he said the aftermath has been phenomenal.

In order to match demands for healthcare, the district has over the past three years sponsored the training of community health nurses. On average, five nurses are turned out per year, he said.

The rationale is that "District sponsorship ensures that people come back to the district after their training," Hon Ntow Bediako stated.

At Yilo Krobo, Hon Joseph Adu Teye Tawiah, the DCE has reportedly paid premiums of about a hundred aged citizens who could not afford to pay. However, he was not available to confirm this.

According to Hon Michael Jackson Bruku, a government appointee for Somanya, a good number of people continued to demonstrate a lot of disinterest in the NHIS. He said to date some people still came to him for support to pay for healthcare services.

Corroborating, Hon Michael Nuertey, assembly member for Plau, Somanya, there was a lot of apathy from the youth because "they still saw themselves as being strong."

Ida Tettey-Enyo, 25, a tutor at Somanya, said "I registered for the NHIS because I'm a contributor to SSNIT. They'd use my money anyway so it was useful for me to register."

Going back to Manya Krobo, precisely Odumase-Krobo, which is the district capital, Gladys Tetteh, 22 with a year-old baby, said she could not afford to pay the premium of GH¢10. She had just started work as a wayside banku seller and was being marked GH¢2 a day from which she hoped to find money to pay the premium.

So, until the parent/child registration system is decoupled or Gladys registered for the NHIS, the little child cannot have access to health insurance.