Kerala - Kochi   

State government invites proposals

KOCHI: The State government has invited proposals from insurance companies or agencies dealing with health insurance as part of implementing a comprehensive health insurance scheme.

The scheme will benefit the poor who are not beneficiaries of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, an insurance scheme initiated by the Union government.

The State government has decided to launch the scheme in all the districts. As per a recent enumeration, there were 12,66,207 families in the ‘absolute poor BPL category’ and 11,01,206 families in the ‘poor category’ in the State.

A ‘Comprehensive Health Insurance Agency Kerala’ (CHIAK) is being set up to act as the State-level nodal agency for implementation of the scheme, according to official sources.

Coverage under the scheme would be provided for BPL (absolute poor), other poor workers and their families and such other families who subscribe to the scheme. The beneficiaries in a family comprise the head of the household, spouse, and up to three dependents.

The scheme is to be implemented in partnership with insurance companies, State agencies and hospitals in the public, co-operative and the private sectors. The nodal agency will assist the insurance company in networking with the government for fixing of treatment protocols and costs so that the cost of administering the scheme is kept lowest, sources said.

The scheme shall provide coverage for hospitalisation and medical and surgical procedures for beneficiaries up to Rs.30,000 per family, per year, subject to limits.

The benefit on family will be on ‘floater basis’ which means that the total reimbursement of Rs.30,000 can be utilised individually or collectively by members of the family.

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