Nearly 14 percent households in J&K have at least one person covered by a health insurance plan or health scheme, based on the recently released National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5).
The fifth edition of the survey, the information of which pertains to 2019-21, shows a substantial improvement in health insurance coverage across the country.
In J&K, 10.9 percent of men are covered by any health scheme or health insurance and only 2.3 women are covered.
According to the report 41 per cent of households in India have at least one individual covered by a health insurance plan or health scheme. In 2015-16, just 29 per cent households had at least one member covered under health insurance or health scheme.
The schemes under which these households were being covered under insurance schemes include Employee state insurance scheme (ESIS) , Central government health scheme (CGHS), State health insurance scheme , Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), Community health insurance programme and others.
Besides this, Jammu and Kashmir administration has kept Rs 1,484.72 crore for Health and Medical Education sector in the Budget 2022-23 for accessible, affordable, and quality healthcare facilities for its people.
The UT is simultaneously running health Melas, health schemes, building medical infrastructure, digitalization of health records, collaborating with eminent academics for medical research, and successfully running the world’s largest health insurance scheme fully financed by the government.
Prime Minister Modi launched the Ayushman Bharat-SEHAT scheme in December 2020 under which almost 1,000 patients apply for free IPD (Inpatient Department Care) treatment in J&K. Beneficiaries are given “gold cards” – the health insurance cards that can be shown at medical centers for free treatment. 60 lakh cards have been issued so far and 16.36 lakh families have at least one member registered with SEHAT.
The scheme provides universal health cover of Rs 5 lakh a family every year at empanelled public and private hospitals. An amount of Rs 1.7 crore is spent daily by the government for disbursing the medical bills of the citizens.
Till February end this year, over 16 lakh families were issued Golden Cards under the Ayushman Bharat scheme that has transformed the healthcare facilities for residents of the union territory.
Officials said 16.38 lakh families have been covered under the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
