An additional boon for Senior Citizens, please!
It’s that time of the year again, the seventh month, when the nation salutes its Senior Citizens on July 1, to mark Republic Day. Now dedicated to Senior Citizens, the highlight of the Day is lunch with the President for a selected number of them. But how I wish that in addition to that honour, there could be one additional demonstration of the nation’s appreciation!
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The extra ‘thank you’ gesture to SCs from the President on behalf of the nation is something which has been in my thoughts for some time: the urgent need to reduce the medical bills of the aged.
Making health care cost less of a trauma for SCs would surely be the supreme act of benevolence to the aged on the part of the Government.
I find it a very strange, paradoxical fact of life in this country that at the time when one is not earning a salary, that is when most of one’s illnesses can only be treated with costly procedures and expensive drugs.
At this year’s Republic Day luncheon for SCs, President Nana Akufo-Addo announced the institution of a Freedom Pass to enable the aged to use public transport free of charge. Other things are under consideration, he said.
This is very welcome news, of course. However, as indicated, I think that what is even more pressing for the aged is the affordability of health care for them.
I haven’t carried out a formal survey, but I can say that medical bills are a nightmare for every SC. The exceptions are, perhaps, those who were in the top earning bracket during their working life and hence in retirement have access to a pension that guarantees them a stress-free life, and no problems with affording health care.
Lucky is the SC who is in perfect health – or suffers from only minor ailments. Some SCs spend more than half of their pension on medicines alone.
One can imagine their situation if they have no other means of survival or family support.
But family support may not always be available, especially if they themselves are struggling to make ends meet.
Even if one is on the National Health Insurance Scheme, the reality for some aged is that very few of the procedures and medicines they need are covered by the NHIS. Therefore, a system to reduce the medical bills of SCs would be very, very welcome.
Interestingly, the NHIS has a Subscriber Handbook, described as a “guide to registering and accessing NHIS”. In fact it contains a lot of useful information, including even contact details of their regional offices, as well as a List of Medicines covered by the Scheme.
However, poring over the section explaining the ‘Benefit Package’, in view of my own experiences as a SC, I was somewhat perplexed to read that “the NHIS covers over 95 per cent of all ailments that are presented in Ghanaian health care facilities” and under the ‘Out-Patient Services’ section, that “investigations, including laboratory investigations, x-rays ….” are supposed to be covered.
Furthermore, Eye Care, including refraction and visual fields are also part of the deal. Yet, as far as I can remember, although I’m an NHIS subscriber, I have had to pay for many laboratory investigations, x-rays and refraction at my clinic, which is an NHIS facility.
Or does it depend on which health facility one attends? Does one get more free services at certain health clinics than at others?
Indeed, so many of the procedures and drugs prescribed for me are usually met with a polite, rueful smile by the staff and “sorry, not covered by Insurance”, that I’ve gotten used to asking my doctor for a prescription to take away, rather than spend precious time at the pharmacy only to be told at the counter that my drugs are “not covered”.
But I note that the publication is dated 2015, so maybe it needs to be updated.
Or, better still, perhaps the National Health Insurance Authority should consider publishing a separate guide for SCs, just so that they can be sure what Insurance cover they have or are entitled to.
My other issue regarding the Presidential and national ‘thank you’ to its SCs, has to do with how the guests are selected to be hosted by the President.
Sometimes one wonders how the selection was done.
Just a matter of curiosity – and I believe that I’m not the only one wondering how one gets invited.
Wouldn’t it be helpful if ahead of the Senior Citizens Day, the Presidency/Ministry of Information/State Protocol could publish a list of the President’s Republic Day guests? After all, names of other award winners or people being given recognition are regularly published in the media.
Equally important, in the interest of transparency it would be good to know by what criteria the invitees are selected.
Better still, there could be a slot for nominations from the public published in the media, say a month or two before the event.
The public could be invited to nominate deserving SCs in their community, for example people who have demonstrated rare courage or community spirit; or who have played a critical leadership role in their community worthy of recognition by being invited to have lunch with the President.
That way, too, if some sections of deserving SCs are being neglected, that oversight could be corrected.
If the list of the invitees for the Republic Day SC Lunch has been published before, ahead of the event, I certainly don’t recall hearing about it.
I guess it’s not even about what delicious dishes and delicacies will be served. Who wouldn’t like it to be known that the Presidency has recognised their contribution to nation-building in their little corner of Ghana, even if far away from Accra?!
Also, it would bring the Presidency even closer to the people. That’s my view, anyway.