Kolkata: Aiming to provide basic health coverage via insurance mode to families, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today announced a group health protection scheme named Swasthya Sathi.
This scheme will have a basic health coverage through insurance mode up to Rs 1.5 lakh per annum per family and up to Rs 5 lakh for certain critical diseases like cancer, neuro-surgery, orthopaedic and cardio vascular under the scheme, Banerjee said while unveiling the scheme at a function in Netaji Indoor Stadium.
More than 45 lakh families covering a population of around 3 crore and coming from self-help groups, ICDS workers, Asha workers, civic volunteers force, civil defence volunteers will be benefitted from the scheme, she said.
Distribution of smart cards to the beneficiaries has already started in the districts.
It was learnt, that there will be no cap on the family size and parents of both the spouses will be covered. All newborns will be covered whereas all pre-existing diseases will be covered from the day one.
“Each beneficiary will be entitled to get cashless treatment including Rs 200 as transport allowance on discharge from hospitals,” Banerjee said.
More than 500 hospitals and nursing homes have already been registered under the scheme and the entire cost of the scheme will be borne by the state government and the beneficiaries need not to pay any contribution.
The scheme will entirely run on IT platform and each family will be provided with a 64 KB chip-enabled smart card.
An android-based app has been developed and released for the assistance of the beneficiaries and the stake holders.