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PM to launch free health insurance scheme for tribal districts today

By Mushtaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR: Prime Minister Imran Khan is launching Sehat Sahulat Programme, free health insurance scheme, to all the people of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), today (Friday).

According to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai, Imran Khan is due to arrive in provincial capital today to formally launch the health insurance scheme.

He said Imran Khan would kick off the free health services scheme by delivering the Sehat Insaf Cards to some of the tribespeople at a function at the Governor's House after Friday prayers.

Official sources said initially it was decided to provide 100 per cent coverage to the people of North Waziristan and South Waziristan tribal districts as data of the two militancy-affected districts was not available.

However, Shaukat Yousafzai said Imran Khan decided to provide 100 per cent free health services to all the residents of the seven tribal districts, including Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan. He said the government had added some more incentives for the patients by increasing volume of the amount and including some diseases and surgical procedures.

It is stated to be the same free health insurance scheme, which the KP government first started a few years ago for a limited number of people. The KP government now claims it has been providing free health insurance services to 70 per cent of the population of the province.

The KP government provided free health insurance scheme worth Rs540, 000 to each family. The Sehat Insaf Card being extended to the seven merged districts would have Rs730, 000 for each family.

Also, the card would be recharged if the patient needed additional amount for treatment in the hospital. "If the patient was under treatment in the hospital andconsumed the specific amount in the card. The card would be recharged if the patient required further treatment," said an official.

Pleading anonymity, he said as per plan of the programme, the federal government would provide funds for the free health insurance scheme for two years and would then deliver it to the KP government to continue it beyond 2020-21.

He, however, feared that the KP government may not be able to continue the programme by ensuring free health services to 100 per cent of the population.

"There is no country in the world that can afford to provide free health insurance services to all its population. The aim of the insurance scheme is wealthy people to support the poor ones. Interestingly, there are billionaires in the tribal districts and they too would be provided free health insurance services which is against the very basics of insurance scheme," opined the official associated with the KP Health Department.

He said the KP government would then face trouble from the people of tribal districts if it suspended the free health insurance scheme there. The official added that it would have been better had the government first collected proper data of the poor people there and then initiated the health insurance scheme.