PUNJAB: Narinder Singh’s mother Surinder Kaur fell down a few months ago and complained of pain in the leg and back. When he got her ex-ray done, the Jalandhar resident came to know she had suffered a hip fracture.
Had this happened a year before, Narinder would have been in a fix as he hardly had the means to afford the cost of bipolar hemiarthroplasty.
But thanks to a cashless health scheme launched by the Punjab government nine months ago, he did not have to worry.
“We went to a private hospital as we had this health insurance card. They operated upon my mother. She was in the hospital for a few days but we were charged any money. When she got discharged, the hospital gave 10 days’ medicines free of cost,” said Narinder.
Sixty-year old Jarnail Singh, a tailor, got his knee replaced at a private hospital, something he could not have dreamt of earlier. “I had severe problem walking.
"I got referred by a government hospital and as I had the insurance, the private hospital admitted me and did not charge a single penny for the knee replacement operation,” he said.
Narinder and Jarnail are not alone. Lakhs of others who do not have the resources to bear the costs of expensive medical procedures have benefitted from the Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojna launched by the Amarinder Singh government in August last year.
The government launched the scheme as hardly 12 per cent of the state’s population was covered under the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana whereas this treatment scheme covers 75 per cent people.
“We want to universalise this scheme by extending it to the entire population of Punjab. The private hospitals which are empanelled under this are willing giving their services as they are getting the payment from the insurance firms,’’ said Dr Avneet Kaur, Director (Health and Family Welfare), Punjab.To get free treatment, the beneficiary needs to generate an e-card.
There are Arogya Mitras posted in every empanelled hospital who register the beneficiaries and facilitate cashless treatment.
A key feature of the Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojna is that it does not classify the card holders on the basis of number of family members, age or gender and covers all the eligible members of the beneficiary family.
Dr RK Vassal, Managing Director of Vassal Hospital in Jalandhar, says, “Affordability (of treatment) was a big issue earlier with many patients who had cardiac problems, in accident cases, those who suffered brain strokes or paralysis.
"They could not afford to go to private hospitals and in government hospitals, the poor facilities were an issue. Now they just walk in with the insurance cards and get the treatment done. In our hospital we get around 40 such patients per month.’’