E-Paper
Over 100 avail benefit of Punjab health insurance scheme within 48 hours
State Health Agency’s data showed that the Punjab government’s new health insurance scheme Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana, received a good response from the people. The state government claims that the scheme would benefit nearly 75% of Punjab’s population.
The Amarinder government’s new health insurance scheme, Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana, has got a good response. Till about 2pm on Thursday (the scheme was launched on Tuesday), 102 patients had availed the scheme to get treatment in private and government hospitals across the state, data with the State Health Agency (SHA), a government society, showed. The scheme offers packages, including expenditure for three-day pre-hospitalisation and 15-day post-hospitalisation. Some packages (124) have been reserved for government hospitals only.
“The SHA website records data in real-time, meaning that as and when a patient avails benefit under the insurance scheme, it is automatically registered with the portal,” said Amit Kumar, SHA chief executive officer and managing director, Punjab Health Systems Corporation. “The figure of 102 is till Thursday, 2pm,” Kumar confirmed.
As on date, 200 government hospitals and 250 private hospitals have been empanelled under the scheme. Around 7 lakh persons have already registered themselves to get e-cards, which can be generated by giving your particulars at Common Service Centres (CSCs) across the state.
In the break-up of cases, Ludhiana leads with 30 patients having availed of the scheme, followed by Bathinda, Gurdaspur and Amritsar, a top official told HT, adding, “Detailed data on expenses and treatment availed by patients could not be tabulated today (Thursday) as our staff is overworked. There is a flood of questions from the ground-level and the website is facing some technical issues.”
“The response to the scheme is more than expected. We have decided to exhort private hospitals to get empanelled under this scheme. Civil surgeons have been given this task. More mass awareness campaigns will be launched,” said state health and family welfare minister Balbir Singh Sidhu.
THE SCHEME
The scheme provides health cover of ₹5 lakh per family per year to over 46 lakh families of the state. The Capt government has extended the benefit of the Narendra Modi-led Central government’s Pardhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (PMJAY), popularly known as Ayushman Bharat, which was to cover nearly 14 lakh families as per the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data.
The state government claims that nearly 75% of Punjab’s population will benefit from the scheme, including 14.9 lakh under the SECC; 20.4 lakh families getting subsidised foodgrain under the National Food Security Act; 2.4 lakh construction workers registered with the Construction Welfare Board; 46,000 families of small traders having turnover of less than ₹1 crore per year; 5 lakh families of J-form holder families of farmers under the Punjab Mandi Board; another 2.8 lakh small and marginal farmers under the mandi board and 4,700 government-accredited journalists.
