The Hindu Business Line : 6 crore people in AP to have health cover

Hyderabad, Aug. 5 After piloting the ‘Arogya Sri’ health insurance scheme in three poor districts of Andhra Pradesh, the State Government plans to issue health cards to 1.8-crore BPL (below the poverty line) families.

As a result, about six crore of the State’s eight crore people will have insurance cover.

“Expenditure on medical care is a major burden on poor households. While some are unable to repay the loans taken to pay hospital bills, others are forced to remain mute spectators as their kin succumb to diseases,” the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, said.

The Government has decided to cover 81.5 per cent of the State population holding ‘white cards’ (ration cards), through Arogya Sri.

“We will give them health insurance cards that give them cover in the range of Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh,” he said.

The programme is expected to be completed in four phases by November next. “As we expand the programme, we will put in place the required systems (health camps and identifying beneficiaries),” he said.

The network of hospitals, which currently numbered 69 in the three districts, will also be expanded as the scheme progressed to other districts. The pilot is currently being implemented in Srikakulam, Mahboobnagar and Anantapur, covering about 86 lakh people with an outlay of Rs 70 crore.

More Stories on : Social Security | Health | Andhra Pradesh

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