KOCHI: Kerala aims to become the first state in the country to introduce insurance coverage to its entire population. After successfully implementing the Medisep and Karunya schemes, the state government is coming up with the concept of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), a comprehensive scheme to provide everyone in the state with one or other type of insurance coverage.
“While Medisep provides insurance to the families of government employees, Karunya Aarogya Suraksha Padhathi (KASP) benefits only the BPL families. There is an in-between section of people who do not fall under any of these schemes. With Universal Health Coverage, we aim to help financially backward APL families,” Health Minister Veena George told TNIE.
Bijoy E, the joint director of the state health agency (SHA), the body entrusted with the task of implementing this initiative, said that ministry-level discussions on the plan are going on. “There is a missing middle class that does not have any insurance coverage and therefore lacks access to quality healthcare. We aim to provide them with insurance. We have submitted the proposal, and ministry-level discussions are being conducted,” he said.
“There are 93 lakh families in the state. Of these, 42 lakh families are covered under KASP and eight lahks under Medisep. A significant number of the remaining families have private insurance. However, there is a missing middle class. We aim to provide coverage for them,” Bijoy said. The state government is yet to decide on the fund allocation and its sourcing, he said.