Health cover for all

In what is the first scheme of its kind in the country, the Sehat Insaf Card scheme for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been inaugurated by Prime Minister Imran Khan. The scheme is an important one, given that the lack of health cover is a major problem for millions – and illness in families one of the key reasons why they are pushed into poverty. According to surveys in KP, most families spend 70 percent of health costs out of pocket given the reliance on private hospitals, what with government hospitals offering extremely poor services in many cases. This is especially true in KP where many more remote areas and the newly merged districts that previously formed Fata have minimal health cover to serve people. Under the radical new scheme, a cover of one million rupees will be provided to around six million families in the province, effectively covering the entire KP population of 40 million and allowing them to obtain treatment at 250 public and private hospitals across the country. The facility, which is being operated with the cooperation of the State Life Insurance Company, is available to any individual who carries an ID card with permanent domicile listed in KP no matter where he or she lives in the country.

The KP government has said corruption within the scheme will be controlled by the fact that it is available to everyone and as such no wrongdoing in terms of non-eligible people being put forward can be carried out. The concerned ministers have explained that there are only about two or three percent of people in the province who do not require any support to obtain health facilities within hospitals and that these persons are unlikely to attempt to avail the scheme given that it does not offer the use of private rooms or outpatient facilities. Imran Khan has also said he is hopeful that the example set by KP which has already allocated money to finance the scheme will be followed by Punjab, Balochistan and possibly also Sindh. There has lately been concern even at major hospitals over the declining care and lack of staffing. We hope the health card being issued to people zone by zone and their own NIC which they can use until the issues of this card will enable them to obtain healthcare which is of value and of a high standard.

The scheme is undoubtedly a good one, and we hope it works. There are concerns raised about its politicization, with the Sehat Insaf Card carrying the colours of the PTI, which is being heard in a case put before the Islamabad High Court are also there only because in the past the ruling party has made much of such issues. The main concern should be to grant people the health means they have lacked for far too many decades and by doing so make their lives a little easier and spare their families long months of sufferings they are often forced to endure in the event of an illness or injury.