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Ghana's Minister for Women and Children's Affairs, Hajia Alima Mahama, said the government is planning an amendment to the National Health Insurance Scheme law, giving all children under 18 free care. The NHIS law provides that both parents of a child below 18 years should be registered with the scheme before the child can access medical care for free. Speaking at the Second National Forum on Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Accra, Hajia Mahama announced that the current law "defeats the essence of protecting and helping children", especially those orphaned and vulnerable. She said that the Attorney-General"s Department is studying and fine tuning the proposal before it is presented to parliament for approval and passage into law. The National Forum on Orphans and Vulnerable Children brought together NGO’s and other civil society stakeholders for the official presentation by the Department of Social Welfare of the First National Plan of Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children and of the Care Reform Initiative. Giving a presentation on the National Plan of Action, Stephen Adongo, Deputy Director of the Department of Social Welfare, indicated that the plan of action emerged from the first Orphans and Vulnerable Children forum held in 2005, which he noted was mainly concerned with HIV and AIDS. He said that since the forum, the country had initiated a lot of programmes aimed at improving and protecting the Ghanaian child, but that the National Action Plan did not address the full complement of children’s rights. He said children represent 47.5 per cent of the total population of Ghana adding that Ghana seemed to be on track to achieving universal education and gender parity in primary education, both Millennium Development Goals, by 2015. Mr Adongo said that the National Plan of Action is a three-year scheme focused on children, notably the most vulnerable in the Ghanaian society. He pointed out that the plan is divided into three strategies, namely, prevention, protection and transformation. Further information
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