The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : New insurance scheme yet another bid to bring down Infant Mortality Rate

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 25, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

New insurance scheme yet another bid to bring down Infant Mortality Rate

Ramya Kannan

Rs.10 crore to be invested as seed capital: Health Minister

State-of-the-art neo-natal intensive care units available only in some PHCs: officials
Sum of up to Rs.1 lakh per child will be sanctioned per child for a period of one year

CHENNAI: The new scheme to extend public health insurance to infants up to the age of one is yet another attempt by the State to bring down the Infant Mortality Rate below the current 31 per 1000 live births.

While the State's IMR is well below the national average of 52, efforts to reduce it further were unsuccessful, Health Department officials explained.

Though a number of measures were put in place to bring down the IMR further, including providing free ambulance services, contracting obstetricians from the private sector to serve in public hospitals, free surgeries for congenital heart disease, they were unable to knock down the figure of 31 deaths per 1,000 live births before the age of one.

Reduction of infant and child mortality continues to be a high priority area for the State, officials added. Again, state-of-the art neo-natal intensive care units are only available in some of the primary health centres, to provide the level of care to save the lives of children. Upgrading and expansion of NICUs is on, officials said.

Meanwhile, in order to help those who find it difficult to go to the referral centres at the district level, the new scheme intends to pay for the treatment of infants even in private hospitals. Officials said it would only be prudent to utilise the capacity available in the private sector in an effective way.

While corrective surgeries can be performed under two existing schemes, non-surgical care will be taken care of for the major life-threatening conditions, including acute respiratory failure, pneumonia, dehydration, asphyxia, bleeding disorders, diarrhoea, meningitis, and septic shock. A sum of up to Rs.1 lakh per child will be sanctioned per child for a period of one year from the birth of the child.

Health Minister MRK Panneerselvam told The Hindu that a sum of Rs.10 crore will be invested by the State as seed capital for the current financial year. During the next financial year, a sum of Rs.25 crore will be invested in this scheme, he added.

Pregnant women can apply for and get cards for their unborn children, provided they meet the eligibility (income criteria same as for the Chief Minister's Insurance Scheme). Mr. Panneerselvam clarified that even those who are not part of the Chief Minister's Insurance Scheme can now enrol to be part of the scheme in the beginning of the next year.

Efforts are also on to arrive at an arrangement with Star Health Insurance to coordinate the logistics of this health financing scheme.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu