ISLAMABAD: The State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan has won the contract of insurance of health cards for the next three years again.

This means that 100 percent population of Islamabad, Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan will get free treatment of up to Rs1 million.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan said while moving to achieve the mission of a prosperous and healthy nation along with universal health coverage for indoor services, Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) along with Government of Punjab started the process for procurement of an insurance company for the year 2022-2025 to implement the Sehat Sahulat Programme as per directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

“The procurement process for Phase III of the programme has been concluded on Thursday by the Financial Opening of Proposals in presence of Request For Proposal (RFP) evaluation committee, media representatives and other dignitaries,” he said.

NHS Additional Secretary Nabeel Awan, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sehat Sahulat Programme Mohammad Arshad, senior officials of the health department were also present.

After the proceedings, Dr Sultan said that the contract was awarded to State Life for the next three years to carry out the huge task of universal health insurance in Pakistan.

It is worth mentioning that from Dec 31, 2021 the Sehat Sahulat Programme and Qaumi Sehat Card will be gradually expanded to all permanent residents of ICT, Punjab and Gilgit- Baltistan. The programme has already covered all permanent residents of the newly merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, District Tharparker- Sindh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir along with persons with permanent disability and members of the transgender community. The programme is entirely funded by the government.

The SAPM hoped that governments of Balochistan and Sindh will also join the insurance programme in the near future to materialise the dream of national universal health insurance by providing Qaumi Sehat Cards to each and every citizen of Pakistan as this will keep them protected against catastrophic healthcare expenditures of millions of rupees for serious issues like cardiac surgeries, cancer treatment, renal failure and so on.

“Sehat Sahulat Programme is the flagship programme of the government as per the vision and directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan, through which support and assistance is provided against catastrophic healthcare expenditure. This scheme will bring robust improvement in treatment and access to quality health care services to population and will bring a revolution in the health sector of Pakistan,” Dr Sultan said.

Mr Awan said through the Social Health Protection initiative, all permanent residents of the said areas will be provided with free-of-cost health insurance to secure indoor health care services from empanelled hospitals through a very transparent and computerised mechanism.

Mr Arshad pointed out that services which are being provided by the Qaumi Sehat Card include open heart surgeries, insertion of stents, management of cancer, neurosurgical procedures, burn management, accident management, dialysis, intensive care management, deliveries, C-section and other medical/surgical procedures up to the limit of Rs1 million per family, per year. There is a facility of inter provincial / inter district portability for availing free-of-cost services from any empanelled hospital in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2021