Syllabus Section: Governance/ Social Justice

 

Why in news?

 Recently West Bengal government has expanded the Swasthya Sathi scheme coverage  to cover the state’s entire population.

About the scheme

• Swasthya Sathi scheme is a health insurance scheme of the West Bengal government. It was launched in 2016. 

• It provides basic health cover for secondary and tertiary care up to 5 lakh INR per annum per family.

• Both state-run and private hospitals are part of the scheme. The card under the scheme is issued to the female guardians of the families.

Updated features

• Every citizen and every family in the state are to be included in the scheme irrespective of their age group.

• The scheme is to be completely funded by the state government of West Bengal.

• The scheme will provide a smart card to each and every family of the state to avail the benefits under the scheme.

• The Smart Cards are to be issued in the names of the women members of the family.

• All the private and state-run hospitals are to be brought under the scheme

• Under the scheme, the State Government representatives will visit every household to complete the enrolment procedure. This is to be done under the Duarey Duarey Paschim bongo Sarkar initiative.

• The state government of West Bengal is to allocate 2,000 crores of rupees to implement the scheme

• So far, around 1,590 hospitals have been empanelled in the scheme. The scheme will cover 1.5 crore families, that is, 7.5 crore people.

 

Source: News on All India Radio