Karnataka to roll out health cards under Aarogya Bhagya scheme from Nov 1

The Karnataka state government will launch a Universal Health Cards to about 1.4 crore families across the state on November 1, Kannada Rajyotsava day. The cabinet on Monday approved the Aarogya Bhagya scheme which will provide free and cashless treatment to patients in both government and private hospitals.

Just months ahead of assembly elections, the government has decided to issue a card which is linked to a person's Aadhaar number that will ensure health coverage.

Under this scheme, there will be two categories of people. Category A would include farmers, deprived households, labourers from the unorganised sector, pourakarmikas, all SC/ST people, members of cooperative societies, government employees, media persons and elected representatives. The rest will be under Category B.

The category A patients will get cashless treatment, while the category B beneficiaries will get 30% reimburesment from government.

The scheme is based on the assumption that each household has an average of five members, and Karnataka's population is 6.5 crore. Of this, 1.05 crore households -or, 83% of the population -needn't pay a paisa for treatment under the scheme.

Health minister KR Ramesh Kumar will soon meet health and finance department officials to flesh out the details of the insurance cover and types of diseases to be covered.

OneIndia News