Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Biometric smart cards to be issued to one crore families

MADURAI: The recently launched ‘Kalaignar Insurance Scheme for Life Saving Treatments’ in the State will cover 51 diseases and biometric smart cards are to be issued to one crore beneficiary families.

“This scheme will bring about a definitive change in the public health scenario in Tamil Nadu since people can now go to any hospital and get treatment for diseases,” Dr. S. Elango, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, told The Hindu here on Sunday.

According to him, people of all ages stand to benefit from the scheme which is being implemented in association with Star Insurance, a private insurance company.

He said the scheme had been formulated to cover 51 diseases, including congenital anomalies/heart ailments among children, cleft lip and palate, new born emergency surgical intervention, cervical cancer among women, heart valve replacement and angioplasty among other things.

Dr. Elango said the list of hospitals for getting treatment includes government hospitals and empanelled private hospitals. “We have asked the Deputy Directors of Health Services in districts to coordinate the process of issuing biometric cards for this scheme. Star Insurance will complete the process in about a month and the card will have the photograph of the head of the family,” the Director said.

He said the Health Department had estimated that about four crore people (one crore families) would benefit out of the insurance scheme which means that about 65 per cent of the State’s population had been covered. The income ceiling had been increased to Rs.72,000 instead of the usual limit of Rs.24,000 for families which are Below the Poverty Line.

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