Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Sunday, Jan 08, 2006
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Sunday, Jan 08, 2006 |
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Health Money & Banking - General Insurance Industry & Economy - Social Welfare Move to make healthcare affordable New cover: Free medicines for BPL families on the anvil
P.T.Jyothi Datta
Mumbai , Jan. 7 IT may not be the conventional passbook that customers use to update bank balances. The Centre is mulling a `passbook concept' to help families below the poverty line (BPL) purchase medicines. The proposal, part of the Centre's new National Health Insurance Scheme, is a fresh attempt at making healthcare affordable to BPL families. A BPL family member, the scheme proposes, should be able to approach the nearest designated chemist with a passbook type of document to record the purchase of medicines up to a limit of Rs 5,000 for a year. Based on the doctor's prescription, the chemist will provide medicines and make the entry in the passbook. Unlike the earlier Universal Health Insurance Scheme, in this proposal, the Centre will pay the entire premium (approximately Rs 550 per family per year) to the insurance company, which will reimburse the chemist or hospital. The BPL family does not have to pay anything. The scheme is on the drawing table and the Centre is scheduled to meet the four public sector insurance companies this week to discuss details. Besides New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance Company, National Insurance Company and United Insurance Company, private insurance companies are also said to be interested, a ministry official said. The insurance coverage for medicines does not mandate hospitalisation, a requirement usually tagged onto health insurance schemes. For hospitalisation, the new health insurance proposal earmarks another Rs 15,000 for the BPL family. BPL cards given by the State Government will help identification, the official said. Oriental Insurance's Chairman and Managing Director, Mr M. Ramadoss, points out that adequate health infrastructure is necessary for a successful health insurance programme for the poor. "Health insurance has not really succeeded in reaching the masses. In cases where there have been tie-ups with banks, there has been some success in terms of distribution," he observes. In fact, the Universal Health Insurance Scheme (2003) covered only 34,000 families up to January 31, 2005, points out the ministry official, quoting the National Commission on Macroeconomics and Health. The proposed national health insurance will be on a two-year trial run covering 60 districts across the country, at a projected cost of about Rs 200 crore. The Government proposes to fund this scheme through a 2 per cent health cess to be levied on central taxes. The cess would help mop up about Rs 6,500 crore. The health insurance scheme, in its final shape, expects to cover about 600 districts at a total cost of Rs 2,750 crore per year. The scheme would require support from related ministries such as health and finance. The new health insurance scheme is in line with the UPA Government's promise of making healthcare accessible, the official said. But Dr Nayan Shah, Managing Director with Paramount Healthcare Management, a third party administrator (TPA), said that if the Government wants to administer a reimbursement scheme, then TPAs would have to develop infrastructure in the rural areas.
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