Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khan Khattak on Tuesday officially launched the Sehat Sahulat Programme, a social health protection scheme in the province.
In this connection, an official ceremony was held at Pearl Continental Hotel Peshawar. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Health Shahram Tarakai, German Ambassador Ina Lepel and KfW Director Wolfgang Moellers were also present on the occasion.
The overall vision of the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to government sources, is to move towards a universal coverage model embracing the whole population, in which the needs of the poorest are specifically protected by the government and where the availability and quality of essential services is ensured.
They said that the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is launching the Sehat Sahulat Programme in the province with the financial support of German government through KfW Bank. This is a five-year programme and its total cost will be Rs 1399.156 million.
The overall goal of the programme is to improve the health status of the targeted population through increasing access to quality health services and to reduce poverty through reduction of out of pocket payments for health expenditures.
It is basically a health Insurance Programme which is to be implemented by State Life Insurance Corporation Pakistan, selected through competitive bidding. Both public and private healthcare providers have been empanelled for provision of health care services.
The premium under the insurance scheme would be Rs 1700 per family per year which would be paid by the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the financial support of German Government. Each registered individual will get coverage of up to Rs 25,000 per year.
The provider payment mechanism is a cashless system with pre-established prices to be paid to the insurance companies. Share of the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be 5% of the total premium for the first year that will increase gradually up to 25 per cent in the fifth year.
Initially the KP government has selected the districts of Mardan, Malakand, Chitral and Kohat for this scheme. The programme will be rolled out to all the districts of the province in a phased manner.
Insurance under this scheme will be available for the population of the four districts. The premium for the beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Program will be paid by the government with support from the German government through KfW.
Additional population especially potential customers would be encouraged to participate in the scheme by buying the insurance product and in the next five years, it is estimated that up to 50 per cent of the population of the targeted districts would be using the scheme.