The Uttar Pradesh government today launched the state employees cashless health scheme which is projected to benefit some 22 lakh individuals.
Launching the scheme, named after Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, the state’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath said that it was a long pending demand of employees.
Like the Ayushman Bharat scheme which gives a Rs 5 lakh health cover to Antyodaya (the poorest of the poor) families, the scheme will offer a state health card to state employees so that they can avail of free treatment at government and empanelled private hospitals.
Yogi Adityanath said, “UP is the first state in the country to launch such a scheme. We think of our employees as members of our family”.
With that though, also came a word of caution for government employees. “Employees must work with complete dedication for the benefit of the public. Those who cause problems at work are creating problems for themselves post-retirement. Those who do good work are remembered long after they have retired”, he said.
The CM also called upon employees to work in a manner that the state is the number one economic power in the country.
In addition to state employees; pensioners and their dependents will also be eligible for benefits under the scheme.
This puts the total number of beneficiaries at 75 lakhs.
For treatment at government hospitals, medical institutions and medical colleges, there will be no limits on the cashless treatment that can be availed, while at private empaneled hospitals the limit shall be Rs 5 lakhs.
Treatment options can also be availed in private hospitals in other states which are empaneled with the Ayushman Bharat Scheme.
According to the 20018 published National Health Accounts Estimates for India (for the year 2015-16), the out-of-pocket expenditure in the country stood at Rs. 3,20,211 crores (which was 60.6 per cent of the country’s total health expenditure).
In UP, this figure stood at 76.5 per cent When these estimates were first made by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2004-95, the country’s out-of-pocket health expenditure was 69.4 per cent of the total health expenditure.
