TN health insurance scheme better than Centre’s: Officials

Stating that Tamil Nadu covers more than what the Union government is planning to cover under its National Health Protection Scheme, a senior health official said, “Unlike any top to down scheme, the Central Government had come down and said that the state will have all powers of implementation. However, Tamil Nadu’s problem is that it is not a state where there is no insurance. We cover more than what they are intending to cover. Our state has therefore requested the Centre to form an integration, wherein the state’s insurance scheme and national scheme will share their funding for the deserving persons from the state.”

He said that the actual data of the national scheme’s coverage will not be known until after six to nine months. At the budget session that was held on Thursday, Deputy Chief Minister had announced that an amount of Rs 1,361 crore has been provided in the budget estimates for 2018-19 under the CMCHIS which covers over 1.57 crore families in the state. 

It may be noted that the scheme provides free treatment to families whose annual income is less than Rs 72,000. While a total of 1,027 procedures are covered under the scheme, including 154 specialised procedures and 38 diagnostic procedures, nine high-end procedures were included under the scheme since 2012. “They include renal transplant, heart and lung transplant, bone marrow transplant, cochlear implant, auditory brain stem, stem cell transplant and liver and heart separately,” said an official in charge of the scheme.