In the second phase of the Mukhyamantri Swasthya Bima Yojana (MSBY) more than 5.90 lakh families have applied for the health card and the department has disbursed 286635 cards which have reached the beneficiary families. The state nodal officer of MSBY, Dr HCS Martoliya informed that the remaining cards would reach to the hands of the beneficiaries soon. He said that the process of card making is currently on and only the ASHA workers are not reaching out the prospective families now as earlier. “The left out families can contact their ASHA workers and fill the registration forms till end of the January,’’ he said. The nodal officer said that the efforts to include more hospitals in the panel list are going on. He said that in the II phase claim amount of `8.32 crore has been settled and 10325 families have availed the benefit of the scheme.
The II phase of the ambitious MSBY was launched from August 01. In it the Government hiked the insurance cover to `1.75 per family per year. In the first phase the department made 819203 cards. The task of preparation of cards is entrusted on Third Party Administrators (TPA) appointed by the insurance company, the Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company limited. The TPAs are MD India for Garhwal region and Medi Assist for Kumaon region. The state government is paying an annual premium of `385 per family to the insurance company which in turn provides a health insurance cover of `1.75 lakh per year. Dr Martoliya said that one can call Toll free numbers 104 and 18002332530 for any inquiry and problems related to the scheme. He said that the beneficiaries can avail the benefit of cashless treatment in paneled hospitals by showing the MSBY card and they should also carry copies of Ration card and Voter ID card. The MSBY is termed as the dream project of state Chief Minister Harish Rawat and was launched in the previous year. The salient feature of this health insurance plan is that both the Below Poverty line (BPl) and Above Poverty line (APl) families are covered under it. In the first phase the cover under the scheme was `50000 which has been increased to `1.75 lakhs in II phase.
Under the MSBY all such persons who are do not pay income tax and are not Government employees are covered. Treatment of 1206 general and 459 critical diseases can be done under the scheme in 151 government and private hospitals.