THE Prime Minister’s National Health Insurance Programme raises hopes of a better system being put in place for those who cannot always afford medical treatment.

A few questions remain. We are told that the plan, which has to be implemented in phases beginning January 2016, seeks to insure 55pc of Pakistanis who earn less than $2 daily. We also know the task will be executed through the State Life Insurance Corporation. But, as the government says, SLIC will in turn be insured itself; however, oddly enough, the firm which is going to insure it has not been named.

Then data from the Benazir Income Support Programme is going to be used for selection. This is difficult to digest given that so much doubt has been expressed over the Bisp numbers, not least by functionaries of the current government.

Take a look: Health plan to be implemented in phases, says PM

It would have been good if Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, that have opted to stay out of the ambit of this plan so far, had also joined in the effort for a much-needed campaign of truly national proportions. But let’s hope that KP sticks to its plans to launch its own insurance plan, starting with a few districts, while Sindh, too, attends to this urgent need sooner than later.

At the outset, there is talk about the basic need for creating awareness about the plan’s use.

Hopefully, those who are going to provide the services under the scheme — the hospitals — are also going to be trained in not discriminating between those who pay there and then, and those who clear their bills through the insurance system, which takes time.

The experience thus far has not been good. Hospitals and doctors are not known to be patient-friendly.

They are known to be not very warm towards those who do not pay on the spot. Without a remedy for this reluctance, the benefits of the national health plan cannot be transferred to the people. Such attitudes will not do and every effort must be made to check them.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2015