Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Friday launched the third phase of its flagship health scheme Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) with plan to cover 90 per cent of the state’s population by including all left out rural families.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who also announced the launch of new ‘BSKY Nabin Card’ for the beneficiaries, said, “We are now launching the third phase of BSKY, where all left out families of rural areas of our state will be assured of cashless care in private hospitals, for critical ailments.”
In this phase of expansion, all rural families of the state (except regular government employees and income tax payees), who are presently not covered under BSKY, will be eligible to receive the “BSKY Nabin Card”, he said.
This will entitle them to cashless care of Rs 5 lakh per annum (up to Rs 10 lakh for women members), in empanelled private hospitals both inside and outside the state, for identified critical illnesses, the CM said.
“With this third phase of expansion, it is estimated that over 1.10 crore families, covering nearly 90% of the population of the state, will be provided health assurance under BSKY,” said Naveen.
This will ensure that no family in Odisha is left vulnerable due to lack of financial resources to meet high expenditure for critical illnesses; thus fulfilling the promise of universal health coverage for the people of Odisha.
After the launch of the third phase, the government came out with a clarification regarding the provisions of BSKY Nabin card. It said the BSKY original card is for all ration card holders, updated on real time basis. It gives coverage for all packages, while Nabin Card will be for critical illnesses.
It will be for all left out rural families (except tax payers and government servants). Ration card holders will continue with original BSKY coverage, an official statement said.
“Sustha Odisha, Sukhi Odisha” has been the driving force behind all interventions in the health sector in Odisha. It has been my dream to provide universal health coverage to the people of Odisha, where healthcare is a right; accessible and affordable by all. To take this vision forward, the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana was launched 5 years ago bringing about a revolution in providing health assurance to the people of Odisha,” the CM said.
Stating that BSKY coverage is being expanded phase-wise, to provide comprehensive health protection to the entire population, the CM said that in the first phase of BSKY, all services in public health facilities were made free of cost for all persons, irrespective of income or residence.
In the second phase, BSKY provided cashless healthcare in private health facilities for all ration card holders.
Under BSKY, every month over 45 lakh persons receive free health care at public health facilities in the State, while 1.3 lakh persons receive cashless care . This amounts to Rs. 260 crores each month in empanelled private hospitals.
In the past five years BSKY has provided nearly 21 lakh patients with cashless healthcare of about Rs 4,500 crores, in private hospitals alone.
It has thus become a unique model for universal health coverage, leveraging the strengths of both the public and private sectors to provide comprehensive health assurance to the people of Odisha, the CM added.
