Life line: Health Insurance Scheme this year

A patient will be entitled to medical cover of Rs35,000 annually.

LAHORE:

In 2015, the Health Department plans to launch a pilot project for providing health insurance to the poorest of the poor.

Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha, who is supervising the project, says it will be launched in Rajanpur, Hafizabad, Chakwal and Layyah districts.

“The selection of insurance companies and private hospitals to provide treatment facilities to the patients was an uphill task. It has been completed now. The pilot project will start in 2015. It will also be extended to other districts the same year. A patient will be entitled to expenditures of Rs35,000 annually under the scheme,” a spokesman for Health Department told The Express Tribune. He said that the Punjab Health Foundation looking after on the project.

A Health Department official, requesting anonymity because the details have not been finalised yet, said that under the scheme, the patients would likely be able to avail only indoor services at the hospitals. “Emergency services may not be covered in this scheme. The patients may have to pay for them,” he said.

“The scheme has its pitfalls. Government funds will be spent on sending patients to private hospitals that will profit from it. The government should strengthen the basic health units and the tehsil headquarters, and district headquarters hospitals rather than spending Rs4 billion on a pilot project. Considering patients facing a health emergency may still have to come to public hospitals, what’s the use of the insurance scheme?” said Dr Salman Kazmi of Young Doctors’ Association Pakistan.

The Health Department spokesman said the emergency services might not be covered under the scheme because all government hospitals provide free treatment at emergency departments.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2015.