Thaindian News

Shillong, Aug 1 (IANS) The Meghalaya government will introduce a health insurance scheme for those whose annual income is below Rs.5 lakh, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said Monday.

“The proposed insurance coverage would be Rs.1 lakh per family and incase of critical situation, a family can avail upto Rs.2 lakh per year,” Sangma told journalists.

The government will soon chalk out the details of the new health insurance scheme, including the amount of premium that should be paid by the beneficiaries, he said.

Meghalaya government has implemented the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), a central sponsored health insurance scheme for the BPL families.

Since the implementation of RSBY for BPL families has already started, Sangma said the government will work out a convergence exercise to upscale the quantum of amount for the insurance coverage for all in the state.

Under RSBY, each BPL family can avail health insurance benefits upto Rs.30,000 per year in which 90 percent cost of the premium is borne by the central government and 10 percent by the state government. The BPL families need to pay only Rs.30 as their share of premium for registration to avail the benefits under the scheme.

“The intention of the government to introduce the universal health insurance is to ensure that all categories of people avail best health care facilities at an affordable price,” Sangma said.

He said the government had held discussions with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for creating a corpus fund for implementing the universal health insurance scheme.

Apart from the ADB, Sangma said the government would also seek financial assistance from the centre to implement the health insurance scheme.

“We will carry out a bidding process to select an insurance provider to implement the scheme without delay,” he said.