Health Insurance facility extended to construction workers

New Delhi, Sep 23 (UNI) Minister for State (Independent Charge) Oscar Fernandeze today said the extension of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) to construction workers was a unique scheme to attempt to empower BPL families by giving them a choice of their hospitals.

Adressing mediapersons here, today Shri Fernandeze said the smart cards issued under this yojana were valid throughout the country in any of the networked hospitals.

Expressing satisfaction on the implementation of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), the minister said during the last six months 18 states had been brought under the scheme.

The Central Government has already granted approval to 15 proposals from the states and the rest are in the pipeline. Of these, 8 States have already started distributing Smart Cards and more than 3.3 lakh smart cards have been issued. Accordingly, more than 16 lakh families have provided health insurance cover and around 1500 people have availed hospitalisation facilities under the Scheme.

UNI KAS RL KP1943