PESHAWAR: The federal government is replicating the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Health Protection Programme to provide free health facilities to the poverty-stricken population in four selected districts of each province in the country, according to sources.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has already approved the programme to provide free treatment to poor people in four districts of the province. The programme is likely to be launched formally in August this year.

Last month, the federal government issued letters to all the provinces to send their recommendations to launch the Prime Minister National Health Insurance Programme. It asked the relevant departments to designate four districts to be covered under the programme.

The provincial government has informed the centre that it has already completed homework to launch the programme in Mardan, Chitral, Malakand and Kohat. The provincial government has requested the centre to provide funds to strengthen the ongoing programme instead of launching a new one in new districts.

People with below $2 daily income in the selected districts countrywide will benefit from the programme

Under the programme, the federal government has planned to provide funds to the provinces to support treatment of 60 per cent of the population of the selected districts. The programme is aimed at providing medical treatment to the population whose daily income is below $2.

The programme to be launched by provincial government is outcome of the efforts started in 2011 when the German government conducted a study regarding the feasibility of the programme. A German organisation KFW pledged in 2013 to support the provincial government in launching the programme.

For this purpose, the provincial health department is getting data of the deserving people from Benazir Income Support Programme to benefit them through the plan.

A few meetings between centre and the provinces have taken place wherein Khyber Pakhtunkhwa asked the centre to provide funds for its own programme for the tertiary care treatment of the population.

The programme of provincial government will cover the primary healthcare to the people while the funds, to be received from the centre, will be spent on the treatment of chronically-ill people like those suffering from cancer and diabetes etc.

The federal government wants the provinces to allocate 70 per cent of the total outlay for the programme while it will pay 30 per cent to each province. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has convinced the central government that it is difficult for it to launch a new programme in other districts on a short notice.

It wants the centre to allocate the amount for the specialised treatment of people in the districts, which will be covered under its own programme.

Like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the centre has also been in contact with State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan to implement the programme. The annual cost of the KP programme is Rs1.7b and the centre is likely to allocate an amount of Rs400 million from its perogramme.

Each of the provinces will receive Rs550 for the treatment of a family in the selected district from the centre while Rs1,700 will be borne by the provinces. According to the central programme, 21 per cent of the families, with $1 income in the selected districts, would be eligible to get free treatment.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2015

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