More than 78,000 Srinagar residents have enrolled under the Rs 5 lakh health-cover scheme so far

Srinagar, Dec 23: Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary who is also the Chairman of the District Health Society Srinagar Wednesday reviewed the progress of enrolments made under the SEHAT health insurance scheme of the J&K government. He also reviewed the arrangements for rollout of the scheme in Srinagar on 26 December.

The flagship scheme which stands for Social, Endeavour for Health and Telemedicine provides a health-cover of 5 lakh rupees per family per year. It allows portability of benefits across the country, has no cap on family size and involves free and cashless treatment in empanelled hospital located across the country. Any citizen can apply for the scheme which is linked to more than 23,000 public and private hospitals across India apart from those in J&K.

Speaking during the meeting, the DC said the general public needs to be made aware of the scheme and asked the concerned departments including the Health & Family Welfare, Rural Development, ICDS, Information, Social Welfare among others to launch awareness campaigns about and enrolment drives under the scheme.

The departments were asked to launch aggressive public awareness campaigns through hoardings, digital messages on VMD screens, pamphlets, advertisements as well as messages through the print and electronic media.

During the meeting it was informed that more than 78,000 residents of Srinagar have been enrolled under the SEHAT scheme so far adding that this was in addition to 92,000 beneficiaries enrolled earlier under the Ayushman Bharat scheme.

The meeting was informed that the district administration aims to cover a population of over 10 lakh people in the next three months for which public participation under the scheme has been solicited. It was informed that more than 115 Common Service Centres or CSCs have been activated in the district for beneficiary enrolment while as delivery of printed cards will start from 26 December with the formal rollout of the scheme.

In Srinagar, enrolled beneficiaries can avail of benefits including free and cashless treatment under the scheme at 24 government and private hospitals – which also include dialysis centres – empanelled under the scheme.

Arrangements for launch of the scheme at the provincial and block levels were also reviewed during the meeting. Invitations given to beneficiaries for receiving the Golden Card and participation of elected members of panchayats, block development councils, district development councils, municipal corporation and members of health and sanitation committees among others were also reviewed.