Health insurance fails to reach beneficiaries

Expressbuzz. April 1, 2010
BHUBANESWAR: The State Government is lagging behind in providing health insurance cover to the BPL families under the national flagship Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY).


Although the Centre rolled out the scheme on April 1, 2008, the State Government has partially covered five districts while the rest 25 districts have remained untouched. The State has more than 43 lakh BPL families.

The objective of the scheme is to give protection to BPL families from financial liabilities arising out of health-related problems and hospitalisation. Many poor families preferred to ignore treatment of their diseases due to lack of resources and fearing wage loss.

Beneficiaries under the scheme are entitled to hospitalisation coverage up to Rs 30,000 per annum. The insurance coverage is extended to five members of a family including three dependants apart from the head of the family and his spouse. The beneficiary family only needs to pay Rs 30 for registration charge while the premium is shared by the Centre and the State in the ratio of 75:25.

Two years after the launch of the scheme, only 3.12 lakh out of 6.57 lakh BPL families in five districts of Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Nayagarh and Puri have been covered.

While addressing a function, organised by the Press Information Bureau on public information campaign on Barat Nirman here a couple of days ago, Union Minister of State for Fertilisers and Chemicals Srikanta Jena alleged that the State Government is not cooperating in implementing the scheme while other states are way ahead in their implementation.

He further said that the Centre is all set to launch Rajiv Gandhi Health Insurance Scheme shortly. The New India Assurance, a non-player in the health insurance sector, recently announced to take all the districts under its cover.