Minister for sustainable model to run health insurance programme

LAHORE:The government is making the health insurance programme beneficial for the common man, said Punjab Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique.

The minister was speaking at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee here on Monday. The 14th meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Health Insurance Programme was held at the Punjab Health Initiative Management Company under the chairmanship of Health Ministers Khawaja Salman Rafique and Khawaja Imran Nazir.

Khawaja Salman Rafique said, ‘We want to make the health insurance programme beneficial for the common man. We want to run the health insurance programme through a sustainable model and want to continue the health insurance programme for more than 12 crore people of Punjab without interruption. Nawaz Sharif had started health card with a very experienced team. We are brainstorming day and night to launch Sehat Card in a better form. We want to bring the real benefits of the health insurance programme to the common man,’ the health minister said.

Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique said, ‘We have to increase the share of health insurance programme from private to public sector for further improvement of government hospitals.

We appreciate the Secretary Health Punjab, Chief Executive Officer Punjab Health Initiative Management Company and PHIMC entire team for saving the government’s 33 billion rupees through reforms in the health insurance program.’

Khawaja Imran Nazir said 70 percent of the patients are treated in government hospitals on health cards. The health card has not been discontinued. For further improvement, all diseases will be treated free of charge. The poor and middle class citizens will be free through the card while the rich will have to pay some premium. Branding will be done for awareness of the new health card system. Health card will be run on business model, the minister said.

Secretary Ali Jan Khan, Dr Adnan Khan, CEO PHMC Dr Ali Razaq, Vice-Chancellor King Edward Medical University Prof Mahmood Ayaz and Principal Services Institute of Medical Sciences Prof Zohra Khanum participated in the meeting. Officers from P&D Department, Law Department and Finance Department also participated.