By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: With a clear eye on the assembly elections likely in February-March next year, Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma on Saturday launched the Megha Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) which will provide health insurance cover for all the residents of the State.
With this Meghalaya became one of the first States in India to launch this kind of scheme.
The scheme will provide all households, excluding Central and state government employees, in the State with a financial cover of upto Rs 1, 60,000 annually to cover in-patient services, irrespective of income levels.
Launching the scheme at 5th Ground, Polo here, Dr Sangma said that the scheme has been designed in such a manner that it would be sustainable and provide quality healthcare facilities to the people of the state.
Dr Sangma also informed that 30 per cent of the funds allotted under the scheme would be made available to the doctors treating the patients to ensure that the best is given to the people of the state while the rest will be invested to upscale the healthcare facilities.
“The government will be generating additional resources to upscale the healthcare facilities and health infrastructure,” the Chief Minister said adding that of the fund allotted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) 90 per cent is grant while the 10 per cent is loan.
Dr Sangma further stressed on the need for different government departments to organise various programmes and join hands to reach out the people of the state.
Stating that all the hospitals in the state will be covered under this scheme, The Chief Minister called upon the people of the state to avail the benefit of this scheme.
Elaborating the scheme, Deputy Chief Minister, Incharge of Health, Rowell Lyngdoh said the scheme would provide protection to BPL families from financial liabilities arising out of hospitalization.
“The scheme will cover five members of a family-husband, spouse and three dependents. It will provide insurance coverage upto Rs 1.60 lakh per household on a floater basis”, Lyngdoh said adding that each family will have to pay only Rs 31 at the time of registration to avail benefits of the scheme after which a smart card will be issued to each household. The scheme covers hospitalization in any empanelled hospitals and not OPD related ailments and will include transportation cost of Rs 200 for each instance of hospitalsation, the Health Minister said adding that the policy period is for one year which will be renewed every year. It may be mentioned that for this purpose the Government recently signed an agreement with ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co Ltd. Enrollment for this scheme will be done by the key field officers from the department by giving prior information to the locality or area as selected by the representatives. On this occasion, 11 National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) ambulances were also flagged off. Others who were present at the function include Urban Affairs Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh, C & RD Minister Saleng Sangma, Chief Secretary WMS Pariat, Mawprem MLA Manas Chaudhuri, MDC Lambor Malngiang, Commissioner and secretary of Health and Family Welfare DP Wahlang.