Jammu and Kashmir has become the first place in the country where all residents will get health insurance coverage.

In a major step towards the overall welfare of residents of Jammu and Kashmir and facilitating affordable healthcare facilities, Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha has announced a health care scheme that would provide Rs 5 lakh universal health insurance coverage to the residents.

Terming the scheme as a major support for facilitating the healthcare and benefit to all the residents, government is committed to improve the overall standard of life of the citizens, Sinha said.

He said that the J&K health scheme will provide health insurance cover free of cost to all the uncovered residents of J&K presently not covered under AB-PMJAY. This will be implemented in convergence with Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (ABPMJAY),” he said.

Financial Commissioner Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo said that the scheme would also include employees and retirees from government service of J&K and their families. It will have the same benefits as available under AB-PMJAY with an annual health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per family on floater basis,” he said.

He stated that the scheme will cover about 15 lakh families over and above the 5.97 lakh families already covered under ABPMJAY. Besides,1592 Medical Packages have already been approved under AB-PMJAY to which all the beneficiaries of J&K Health Scheme will have access.

Dulloo said that in addition, the packages of life consuming diseases such as cancer and kidney failure and treatment of Covid-19 are also covered under the Scheme.

He further explained that all high-end treatments of Oncology, Cardiology and Nephrology will be covered from day one while the high-end diagnostic treatments during hospitalisation will also be covered.

According to the scheme there shall be no restriction on the family size or age and all the pre-existing medical conditions shall be covered under the scheme.

The scheme shall cover 3 days of pre-hospitalisation, hospitalisation and 15 days of post hospitalisation including diagnostic care and expenditure on medicines.

Dulloo also pointed out that at present there are about 23,300 empanelled hospitals across the country where this facility can be availed and these include 218 public and private hospitals already empanelled in J&K.

He said that the annual financial implication for JK Health Scheme would be Rs 123 Crore.

Under J&K Health Scheme, portability option will be available as applicable under ABPMJAY, which will allow the beneficiary families to avail cashless service. Dulloo added that the Scheme shall be implemented through an insurance service provider discovered through transparent competitive bidding viz. M/S Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Ltd.