Health programme: Dar approves inclusion of Rs 55 million in revised PC-1

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has approved inclusion of Rs 55 million in the revised PC-1 of the Prime Minister's National Health Programme for awareness campaign. Sources said that cost break of the revised PC-I was submitted to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) held on December 20 with the finance minister in the chair.
They added that Rs 55 million for awareness campaign were not part of the original PC-1, approved by the ECNEC on May 13, 2015 to provide health insurance to the people of 23 districts against specific diseases during a period of three years. However, the implementation was limited to only in three districts during the first year. The revised PC-1 with coverage of 34 districts was submitted to the ECNEC for consideration and approval. A Central Management Information System (CMIS) and Prime Minister National Health Pay Package/Scales for hiring of the HR from the open market have been proposed in the revised PC-1. However, the proposal was not acceptable to the sponsoring agency, Ministry of National Health, Services Regulations and Co-ordination. The cost of the project has been revised from Rs 9.1 billion to Rs 8.1 billion primarily, because allocation on account of premium for the both primary and secondary treatment reduced from Rs 7.5 billion to Rs 4.1 billion.
The ECNEC was informed that a premium of Rs 999.99 per family (seven members) per annum has been awarded to State Life Insurance for secondary care with addition of Rs 299.99 per family per annum for priority treatment. The insurance cover would be limited to Rs 50,000 per family per annum for secondary care treatment and Rs 250,000 per family per annum for priority treatment.
The government also proposed an equalisation reserve fund to ensure recovery of unutilised premium during the contractual period, where the profit will be distributed between insurance company and government as per agreed formula. The targeting of beneficiary families will be conducted through Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and National Database Registration Authority (NADRA).
The meeting was further informed that the secondary care includes day-care as well as maternity services. Under the scheme, priority treatment list includes cardio regular diseases, diabetes, burns, road traffic accidents, renal diseases and dialysis, tuberculosis (TB), hepatitis, treatment of HIV chronic liver diseases, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgical oncology.
There would be no exclusion for secondary hospitalisation coverage except criminals, self inflicted injuries, attempted suicide, nervous disorders, infertility, participation or training of dangerous hazards, injuries resulting out of illegal act, injuries resulting out of war, riots, invasion, act of foreign enemies, ionizing radiation, HIV/AIDS, dental treatment and surgeries, organ transplant and prosthesis, natural catastrophes and treatment out of geographical location of registration.
The list of secondary care provider will be developed by the provinces and tertiary care provider by the National Steering Committee for both public and private healthcare provider (hospitals) registered with the Health Regulation Authority, Healthcare Commission or any such body created for the purpose. The 75 per cent of insurance income will be retained by the government hospitals without budget loss. The government has allocated Rs 2 billion in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) of 2016-17 for the Prime Minister's National Health Programme.