Rajasthan takes pole position for health insurance coverage: NFHS report

The Rajasthan government’s focus on the health sector has taken the state to top position in the country in regard to health insurance coverage.

The National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-21) states 88 per cent of the households have at least one member covered by a health scheme or health insurance in Rajasthan. The national figure is 41 per cent.

In NFHS-4 (2015-16), the health insurance coverage of households in Rajasthan was 19 per cent while it was 29 per cent for India.

This happened mainly due to the initiative of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, whose priority is to ensure all citizens of the state can avail themselves of free treatment at a hospital near them. He launched a health insurance scheme called Mukhyamantri Chiranjeevi Swasthya Bima Yojna on May 1, 2021.

This scheme came when the nation was struggling with the second wave of the pandemic and the cashless treatment facility has helped people to reduce their treatment expenditure to a great extent.

More than 13.5 million families are registered with it.

The scheme started with annual insurance cover of up to Rs 5 lakh per annum, which was increased in May 2022 to Rs 10 lakh. The scheme is free for those covered under the National Food Security Act, families eligible under the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC-2011), contractual workers (all departments/boards/corporations/government companies), Covid-19 ex-gratia, and small and marginal farmers.

Others who do not fall in these categories pay a premium of Rs 850 per family.

So far, over 755 private and around 800 public hospitals are empanelled under this scheme. 

Even the treatment packages in this scheme have been increased to over 1,625 and expensive treatment such as liver transplants, heart transplants, kidney transplants, bone marrow transplants, cochlear implants, knee replacement, and hip replacement have been included or covered.

“The scheme faced initial challenges as many reports of non-compliance by private hospitals were received by the state government. The government has thus established a 24x7 call centre answering every call and complaint. Nodal officers have also been assigned to every zone so that every complaint is resolved and registered beneficiaries receive due benefits in empanelled hospitals,” an official of the state medical health department said.

Recently, the state government also launched the Mukhyamantri Chiranjeevi Accident Insurance Scheme to provide economic support to the families insured with the Mukhyamantri Chiranjeevi Swasthya Bima Yojana in the case of death or permanent disability due to an accident.