Sehat Card of little aid in private hospitals

When the former government, which still holds sway in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), first introduced its Sehat Card Programme in the summer 2016, it had seemed like a big win for inclusive health reforms.

Thousands of families across K-P who could not afford basic healthcare, had now found themselves blanketed by broad health insurance plans that the government had revealed with much pomp and glory.

According to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Department of Health’s own statistics displayed on Sehat Card website, the programme is activated over 520 hospitals across the province, has received over 2,198,114 visits and covers as many 6,853,887 lives.

However, six years down the line, it appears that access to health insurance using the Sehat Card Programme hasn’t been easy for everyone, with many still left unable to reap its touted benefits while suffering from ailing health.

Yousuf Durrani, who has spent much of his life working for Afghan refugees’ aid and is now nearing retirement, is one such individual who finds himself caught in a death-dealing dilemma about the government’s health insurance plan.

He suffers from a debilitating kidney disease that renders him unable to breathe without regular dialysis, for which doctors recommend an immediate kidney transplant.

 His wife, he says, is willing to donate her kidney, which is a match, but it is the cost of the operation that his family cannot afford despite being registered with the Sehat Card Programme.

“I have spent hundreds and thousands of rupees in the last two months seeking treatment at a private Hayatabad hospital. The doctors recommend immediate transplant, but even with the facility of the health card I need 1.8 million rupees for the operation. The hospital alleges that they are not receiving the required funds from the government, so my only options right now are seeking donations or selling my house,” said the distressed patient.

“There are dozens of people like me who are dying a slow death despite the government’s promises of accessible healthcare and there is no one to listen to us. If there were a representative of the health department present in these hospitals and a counter was set up to facilitate health card holders, major operations like mine would have been much easier to finance and process,” he added lamentingly.

Hailing from Hangu, Naseem represents another story of the various grounds that the government’s greatly touted Sehat Card programme leaves uncovered. Per his complains, private hospitals that are more accessible and offer relatively better healthcare facilities tend to have really long queues for health card holders, with those at the end of the line often being returned without treatment for various reasons.

 “When I took my father for a heart surgery to a private hospital, I had no luck with the health card. It was a life or death situation and I couldn’t risk waiting so I had to exhaust all my resources to pay for the operation out of my own pocket,” he told this reporter, adding that the government’s health insurance plan needs to offer better coverage for private hospitals that receive a huge number of patients.

Health Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra however does not see the problem here. Per him, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has fulfilled its promise to the people and audited the third-party with heath card, which he claims has been declared satisfactory.

 “Although, the hiccups being faced in provision of access to health insurance in the tribal districts is a problem created by the federal government. They are responsible for withholding the funds, which is an act of injustice. As for the hospitals we are receiving complaints from, we are going to set up a separate system to make sure all patients get access to timely treatment,” he told The Express Tribune.