Over 2.4m more people to get health cards in K-P

K-P CM agrees to expand insurance coverage under German assistance

PESHAWAR: Around 70 per cent population of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) stand to benefit from a free healthcare programme of the provincial government in the next financial year.

According to a statement, the K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has agreed to include the health insurance card in the annual development programme and directed to expand this facility to a larger portion of the population.

With the expansion, the total coverage of the health insurance card will reach some 69 per cent of the total population of the province in next fiscal budget.

Currently, as many as 14.5million people are benefiting from the programme. With expansion of the programme, some 600,000 additional families [around 2.4 million individuals] will be entitled to medical assistance.

Some 51 per cent beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) were benefiting from the Sehat Insaf Card in the shape of free medical services of up to Rs500,000 at government and private health institutions.

The programme was implemented by the State Life Insurance Corporation Pakistan through a panel of public and private hospitals.

The premium for each family would be Rs1,700 per year that will be paid to the insurance corporation by the K-P government with financial support from the German government.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2017.