Centre-sponsored health insurance scheme for BPL families soon

TIRUNELVELI: Getting advanced medical assistance with government aid from a well-equipped private hospital for the below poverty line families of the district is no longer a dream as the recently introduced Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana will come into force here within next 30 days.
The objective of this health insurance scheme is protecting BPL households with unorganised sector workers without any age limit from 700-odd ailments that involve even hospitalisation with a cost of up to Rs.30,000 per annum for a nominal registration fee of Rs.30. The coverage extends to the head of households, spouse and up to three dependent children or parents.
An annual premium of Rs.700 to be paid by the beneficiaries would be shared by the Centre (75 per cent) and State (25 per cent) governments and hence the beneficiary families would have to bear only the nominal registration charges.
Since the district administration has already completed the exercise of preparing the electronic list of eligible BPL households to be provided to the insurer, United India Insurance, according to a pre-specified format, it would be soon posted in each village prior to the enrolment and the date and location for enrolment would be publicised in advance.
Mobile stations equipped with the hardware required to collect biometric information (fingerprints) of the members of the household would be set up in public places like schools.
Based on the information collected from the BPL families smart cards with a photo of the family head will be printed.
Smart card
The smart card along with an information pamphlet describing the scheme and the list of hospitals would be issued on the spot once the beneficiary pays the registration charge of Rs.30.
On showing the smart card in the select hospitals the patients could avail themselves of the medical assistance.
In Tirunelveli district, one of the two districts in the entire State (the other district is Kancheepuram) selected for this programme, distribution of smart cards was expected to commence within 30 days, informed District Collector (In-Charge), G. Srinivasan, who explained the salient features of this Centre-sponsored health insurance scheme in the district planning committee meeting here on Wednesday.

Source: The Hindu