PESHAWAR: Around 74,000 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa residents received free treatment under the provincial government’s health insurance scheme Sehat Card Plus in other provinces and regions of the country, mostly in Punjab, in 2025, shows official data.
Last year, 73,919 people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were admitted to hospitals in other provinces and regions under the SCP programme as they lived there due to employment and businesses. The province paid a total of Rs3.452 billion for the free treatment last year through the State Life Insurance Corporation, which is implementing the free healthcare initiative on behalf of the KP government.
The data reveals that Punjab remained the highest beneficiary for receiving Rs1.982 billion for treating 40,772 KP residents under the health insurance scheme.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has empanelled 804 hospitals countrywide for the treatment of residents on the production of computerised national identity cards.
Official data reveals KP govt paid Rs3.45bn to hospitals in 2025 through State Life
Punjab has the highest number of empanelled hospitals, mostly in Lahore, while its every city has at least two or more hospitals for the treatment of KP residents. These hospitals total 478 in Punjab, 168 in KP, 85 in Balochistan, 28 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 21 in Sindh and 17 each in Islamabad and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The data shows that hospitals in the federal capital earned revenue of Rs1.123 billion by providing treatment to 23,467 people under the SCP programme. In Sindh, 8,132 patients underwent treatment, with the KP government paying Rs295 billion.
The provincial government spent Rs44 million on the treatment of its 1,080 residents in Balochistan, Rs4 million on 175 residents in Gilgit-Baltistan and Rs4 millionon 93 residents in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Officials in the health department told Dawn that before the empanelment of hospitals in other provinces and regions, the KP residents settled outside the province in connection with business or jobs used to either pay for treatment on their own or return to the province to claim free services.
They add that in order to facilitate them, the government started enlisting hospitals in other provinces to access free care.
The officials said in all regions, the hospitals inducted for free treatment on SCP included both public and private sector where the people can go, they said.
They said most patients received free healthcare for general diseases whose treatment was available in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The care was sought for general surgical, neurosurgical, orthopaedic, gynaecological, ophthalmological and ENT issues.
The officials said after the empanelment of hospitals in other provinces, a total of 350,000 people had received services outside KP on SCP.
They said since Feb 2022, 99 KP residents had got free liver transplants in other parts of the country under the health insurance programme, with 83 undergoing surgery in Islamabad and 16 in Lahore.
The officials said liver transplantation wasn’t offered in KP hospitals with its cost being Rs6.5 million, covering both surgery and one-year post-transplant tests and medicines.
They said overall, 1.2 million were the recipients of free SCP care at a cost of Rs35 billion in 2025.
The officials said 10.6 million families were registered for SCP, with each of them eligible to consume Rs1 million a year.
They said the health insurance programme covered secondary and tertiary care requiring hospitalisation.
The officials said since Feb 2016, 4,978,491 patients from KP had received Rs135 billion free diagnostic care and treatment under the programme.
Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2026
