Tripura CM launches Rs 5 lakh health insurance scheme for 4.15 lakh families

Agartala: Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Thursday launched a universal health insurance scheme under which 4.15 lakh families in the northeastern state will get an insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh.

Under the Chief Minister's Jan Arogya Yojana (CM-JAY) 4.15 lakh families including government employees who are not covered under PM-JAY will get the benefit of health insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh each.

"People become helpless when medical emergency emerges. Many people who are not covered under PM-JAY visit me with a plea for financial assistance to meet exorbitant medical expenditures. It has become a constraint for me to help all these people. This has led me to think of an alternative arrangement for those people who need help with treatment", Saha said while launching the CM-JAY.

"It is indeed a historic moment for the state that we are rolling out CM-JAY to help the people with a healing touch to those who need assistance from the government. Under the scheme, each enrolled family will get health insurance of Rs 5 lakh annually", he said.

Saha said the scheme is designed in such a way that the patient's family will get free medicine for 15 days even after discharge from government or private hospitals and the entire process will be cashless.

"Initially there may be problems in implementing the universal health insurance scheme as it happened with the PM-JAY but these issues will be addressed to ensure the benefit reaches the targeted people. We promised to offer medical insurance to the people in last year's Budget speech and the government delivered it", he said.

Additional chief executive officer of the national health authority Basant Garg claimed that Tripura is the first northeastern state to have introduced universal health insurance coverage for all.

Chief Secretary J K Sinha termed the government's decision to roll out universal health insurance as a "historic and brave" move for the welfare of the people.

"Under PM-JAY, around 5.12 lakh families of the state are covered but there is no health insurance provision for around 4.15 lakh families of the state. This scheme- CM-JAY will ensure all the families of the state get health insurance benefits. This is a historic and brave decision keeping in mind the state's limited resources", he said.

A sum of Rs 69 crore has been provisioned in the Budget for implementation of the universal health insurance scheme.