Punjab moves closer to health insurance for entire population

Health coverage for all families to begin from Sahiwal, DG Khan

LAHORE:

Punjab is all set to enhance to the scale of Sehat Sahulat Card Programme to the general population with the introduction of Health Insurance for every household in Sahiwal and Dera Ghazi Khan Divisions within the current fiscal year.

Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid gave directions to this effect while chairing a meeting of the Punjab Health Initiatives Management Company (PHIMC) at the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department on Friday.

The step would be a milestone in achieving the target of Universal Health Coverage in the province. The health minister reviewed the scale and quality of services provided to families under the Program sharing her insight on targets for Universal Health Coverage. The PHIMC team shared their targets with timelines for the programme especially the scale-up and expansion plans.

“We are now formally moving to the next phase in which Universal Health Coverage will be provided to all the families in Punjab. Within the current fiscal year, we are now moving to cover all families in Sahiwal and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions. These two divisions have been selected for this phase due to high rural population and socio-economic inequalities. In Dera Ghazi Khan Division, people of Rajanpur, DG Khan District, Muzaffar Garh and Layyah will be covered whereas in Sahiwal Division, Sahiwal District, Pakpattan and Okara will be covered.

” The health minister said: “We are eying December 2021 as the timeline for expansion of Health Insurance Coverage services to all the divisions of the province. We have set the target of covering all 22 million families across Punjab. In the first phase, Sehat Sahulat Programme covered people below the poverty line in all the 36 districts of Punjab. We are gradually expanding the services to include all families of the province.