The Naya Pakistan Qaumi Sehat Card scheme, announced by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday, will give health insurance to households in Punjab, Islamabad, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Tharparkar.
The government would spend Rs450 billion on the scheme, which will give citizens with free medical treatment at government and private facilities. Each family is eligible for treatment of Rs1 million per year.
PM Imran remarked at the ceremony in Islamabad that private and government hospitals will no longer be required to pay a premium for universal health coverage, and that both private and public hospitals will be able to provide treatment to the public.
“It is a really big project,” Imran added, adding that for the first time in the country, both the rich and the poor will have access to free healthcare.
#Live: PM @ImranKhanPTI attends launching ceremony of Naya Pakistan Qaumi Sehat Card scheme in Islamabad https://t.co/9YXguQOeWc
— Radio Pakistan (@RadioPakistan) January 26, 2022
The prime minister stated again that ‘elite capture’ has caused the government health system in Pakistan to degrade over time.
“Doctors also refused to attend to outlying hospitals, denying people in rural areas access to essential health care,” he continued. He said that Pakistan’s health-care system exclusively served the wealthy, and that the gap between the rich and the poor has widened since the country’s founding.
Imran stated, in criticising previous governments, that Pakistan’s ruling elite never cared to construct a welfare state.
He claimed that healthcare insurance was a “defining moment in Pakistan’s history” that will pave the country’s road to greatness, and that the state owed its security to its people.
Imran also praised Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, adding that the federal government could not have launched the project without the Punjab government’s support. “Punjab is building five mother and child care hospitals to help reduce Pakistan’s high death rate,” he added.
“This is a healthcare system, not just a health card,” the premier remarked, adding that the health card scheme would put pressure on government hospitals to improve their standards. “If they don’t, people will go to private hospitals, and government institutions will be unable to produce cash,” Imran continued.
The government, according to the prime minister, would also make it easier for private hospitals to expand into rural areas. “In order to encourage private hospitals, we will supply land at low rates and reduce duties on medical equipment,” he stated, adding that this is just the beginning and that education will be the next step.
Usman Buzdar, the province’s chief minister, said 56 hospitals had been enlisted to provide medical insurance in 36 districts. He stated that by March 31, the entire population of Punjab would be covered by medical insurance.
