NHIS to cover all breast cancer expenses - Speaker

Owing to the increasing number of women afflicted with breast cancer, the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Prof Mike Oquaye, has directed the Health Ministry to ensure that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) caters for the cost of treatment of the disease.

Currently, the scheme does not cover all the cost of treating the disease, which is claiming the live of many women in Ghana.

Speaker Oquaye, while addressing the House after a statement had been read on the issue, said that the health insurance should be made to cover all expenses on breast cancer to save more lives.

Dr Oko Boye, a certified medical practitioner and Member of Parliament (MP) for Ledzokuku, also said that it was very bad that some part of the treatment of breast cancer is not part of the NHIS.

The issue is driving most women below the poverty line, and also increasing the mortality rate among them. Majority of the dead occur in low- and middle-income countries due to the lack of finances to treat them.

It is more positive for a country to treat cancer than preaching prevention and creating awareness, hence the need to accelerate the coverage.

He indicated that Ghana had made significant gains in breast cancer management over the past few years, but more cases are being diagnosed while more still remain uncovered.

This is because most women report late when the cancer is at it matured stage, therefore more awareness needs to be done, he said.

Dr Oko Boye also entreated people to visit the hospital on time when they detect that something isn’t right, saying that “breast cancer is curable only when detected early.”

He also advised single women to undertake self-breast examinations or be assisted by their partners, while married women are to be assisted by their husbands.

Speaking about raising more awareness, Madam Sarah Adjoa Safo, Member of Parliament for Dome Kwabenya, said that there were growing incidents of breast cancer in the country, but it can be brought down if the public is made aware of it, and they report early to the hospital of any abnormality that they would observe.

She, however, said that late detection was due to barriers to health services, the reason why we must all help raise awareness to help prevent the issue at its infant stage.

Speaking about how to prevent one from getting the disease, Madam Adjoa Safo said that people should limit the amount of alcohol intake and avoid smoking as well.

She also said that controlled exposure to radiation and environmental pollution are also ways of preventing one from getting the disease.

Mr Ras Mubarak, Member of Parliament for Kumbungu, also spoke on the need to provide funding for more awareness creation, especially in the villages and communities.

He said that most people in the communities have been neglected, which is a reason for the upsurge in the disease.

Another thing is the unavailability of adequate funding to support various funding in many of the communities.

He suggested that MPs should use their common funds to invest in their various communities to create more awareness.

He said that we shouldn’t restrict the education to bigger cities and towns.