MODALITIES FOR HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEME UNDER DISCUSSION

Chennai: A day after the government announced its decision to extend health insurance cover to the poor, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi convened a meeting of officials to discuss the modalities of implementation of the project. Emerging from the discussions, he said he had preliminary discussions on the scheme with Finance Secretary K. Gnanadesikan on the method to identify the beneficiaries, financing, floating of tenders and the chronic diseases that needed to be included under the scheme.

“It will take about three to four months for the scheme to be operational,” Mr. Karunanidhi told The Hindu. Since a notification for the general election was expected in between, the government would not be able commence the work on the project. “We will suspend work on the project once the code of conduct comes into force and will recommence after the elections,” he said.

In the discussions, Mr. Karunanidhi felt that beneficiary identification was critical to the scheme and hence the first major task would be identifying them. It was suggested that the government take the database of the Agricultural Welfare Board, which has a list of about 75 lakh members and this could be the start. The government decided to verify the database and involve the district administration in the process of identification of beneficiaries.

While this was on, tenders would be called for from insurance companies to operationalise the scheme and shortlist private hospitals. “Once tenders are called for, we need to give at least 30 days. Within that time period, it is possible that elections are announced. Then, the process will be kept in abeyance till such time the election processes is completed,” an official said.

For now, the thinking in the government is to include only serious ailments for which government sector hospitals in district towns are not able to cater. “We spend about Rs.3,000 crore a year on government hospitals. If we include all diseases, then this investment will go waste,” an official said. With only major diseases included, the government expects the insurance premium to be in the region of Rs.300 crore.

On the question of selecting a firm from among the public sector players in the field, Mr. Karunanidhi said the company was to be chosen after bidding and all procedures under the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act would be followed. Also, the firms would have to be approved by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority. “We will not be able to prefer a private sector firm or public sector firm in this,” the Chief Minister said.

Source: The Hindu

CII WELCOMES HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEME FOR THE POOR

Chennai: The State Council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Thursday welcomed the State government move to introduce Health Insurance Scheme for Life Saving Treatments for the poor and low-income groups. Addressing newsmen, Manikam Ramaswami, CII-TNSC Chairman, said “this gesture of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi will go a long way in not only improving the physical health of the people, but also the financial health as healthcare costs is one of the most important reasons for indebtedness.”

“Besides, it will ensure that Social Development Indices will accelerate faster than Gross State Domestic Product growth rate which alone is sustainable. CII is particularly happy to note that the government has included lifestyle diseases, which is the largest contributing factor to hospitalisation, and high cost of healthcare,” he said. According to Mr. Ramaswami, the idea of preventive healthcare for lifestyle diseases (veedu thedi vandhu varumun kaappom) was mooted at ‘Healthcare for All’ Summit jointly organised by the State government.

As against Varumun Kappom, preventive healthcare for lifestyle diseases is seen as a means to substantially reduce the need for hospitalisation and cover all healthcare costs through an innovative insurance scheme by roping in private healthcare providers in addition to government hospitals. Mr. Ramaswami called for appointment of healthcare worker in the ratio of 1:4000 people to carry out check-up of urine-sugar, urine-salt and blood pressure at doorsteps and inclusion of more number of players under Public-Private-Partnership to give wider choice to employees to select the appropriate insurance scheme.

By February end, CII-TNSC will submit its recommendations to the State government on Employees State Insurance Scheme’s quality of service, its location and the expectation of the employees among other things. The survey was necessitated as most of the employees said that they have spent more than the ESIC money and the services were not satisfactory.

Source: The Hindu

SATYAM RENEWS STAFF HEALTH INSURANCE

Hyderabad: There is a big relief for thousands of employees of the scam-hit Satyam Computer Services across the country on the health insurance front. The Hyderabad-based company has renewed the group health insurance for its employees. According to a Satyam spokesperson, the last date for the payment of the premium was and the company promptly renewed it.

The company has Iffco-Tokio General Insurance Co. as its insurer and TTK Health Care Pvt. Ltd. as the Third Party Administrator (TPA). The renewal premium was roughly about Rs 30 crore. Incidentally, the insurance premium expired at midnight yesterday.
Meanwhile, the company has also said the insurance premium for the Satyamites in the US was paid.
Source: The Hindu Business Line