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Health cover for Haryana’s poor Chandigarh, December 14 While the announcement of a similar scheme comes as an election sop in the neighbouring Punjab, Haryana has decided to go ahead and provide better healthcare to its people without any such “provocation”. “The insurance scheme will cover nearly eight lakh BPL families in the state, whereby an expenditure of Rs 1 lakh on the treatment of indoor patients in empanelled government and private hospitals will be incurred. The idea is to ensure that an individual is not deprived of quality healthcare for want of finances,” Chief Secretary Prem Prashant said. Adopted from Karnataka, where the scheme has been recently launched, the BPL insurance cover plan was proposed as a risk-pooling measure after the National Rural Health Mission recommended providing affordable healthcare to the rural poor and marginalised population. Sources in the Health Department said the scheme would entail an expenditure of around Rs 1 crore. The Government of India will pay a sum of Rs 250 per person as subsidy to the state, while the rest of the amount, Rs 115 per person, will be borne by the Haryana exchequer. Unlike regular insurance schemes, this scheme will cover all illnesses and pre-existing diseases. The state will hire a private insurance company for the plan and an individual will have to go to the agent, pay Re 1 as token money, get an identity card and become eligible for health insurance cover. “While there is a waiting period under the insurance plan, it will also be a cashless service. A patient possessing an identity card issued by the insurance company can go and get admitted to any of the empanelled hospitals, government or private, and avail himself of quality medical care without paying a single penny. The hospital will recover all dues from the third party administrator, a regulatory body,” an official said.To ensure that these services are utilised to the optimum, the Health Department will make these plans available at its hospitals to have maximum reach. “The scheme has almost been worked out and we are in the final stages of its implementation,” the Chief Secretary stated. While all BPL families will be covered in the first phase of the scheme, the insurance cover will be extended to others on the payment of a nominal premium in the later phase. With the unveiling of the scheme, the Health Department is hopeful of realising the goal of providing quality healthcare to the poor in the state.
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