Minister for Health and Population Pradip Paudel pledged on Thursday to increase the coverage of the government’s health insurance scheme to Rs 500,000 in the near future.
Paudel made the remark at the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Biratnagar-based Koshi Hospital and Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital for cooperation, reported Rastriya Samachar Samiti, the state owned news agency.
Cancer Hospital Director Ujjwal Chalise and Koshi Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr. Rabin Raj Singh signed the MoU stating that Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital will provide oncology services within a month with the help of six to ten specialists.
Paudel, who was appointed the Health minister about one-and-a-half months ago, also made the commitment to allocate Rs 31 billion in a lump sum to boost the insurance coverage.
“Health facilities must be easily accessible, free, and of high quality to ensure the presence of the government,” Paudel said.
The government’s health insurance programme was first introduced in 2017 by the then Health Minister Gagan Thapa.
In the beginning, the programme provided people health facilities worth up to Rs 50,000 in a year in exchange of an annual premium of Rs 2,500 for a family of five.
Currently, the facilities and the premium have been raised to Rs 100,000 and Rs 3,500 respectively.
A family with more than five members has to pay Rs 700 extra per member to get the additional benefit of Rs 20,000.
The scheme covers medicine, check-up and counselling.
The facility is provided from the designated health facilities across the country. However, some hospitals have considered stopping providing the insurance -based service after the government failed to reimburse them on time.
(With inputs from RSS)
