Vijayawada: Lack of co-ordination between the CMO and the NTR Vaidya Seva has put on hold a health scheme that would have financially benefited the populace as well as placed limited liability on the government. Meanwhile, the proposal for this new health scheme that had reached another state, Rajasthan, at the same time, has been implemented by that state.
Details the new health scheme: The existing Arogya Raksha of NTR Vaidya Seva has been charging Rs 1,250 from each member of the family for a health cover while the new policy costs Rs 1,263 for the entire family. The proposal had been sent to the CMO by Chief Minister Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu and later it reached the NTR Vaidya Seva. However, lack of coordination between the CMO and NTR Vaidya Seva has resulted in the “on hold” status of the health scheme.
The government of Andhra Pradesh provides health insurance coverage to BPL families currently under NTR Health Scheme (Aarogyasri and Aarogyaraksha) which run on trust model basis. The submission by the re-insurance proposal was intended to provide mass health insurance in the state with the involvement of insurance companies.
The insurance model offers the following advantages over a trust model. Trust model adds huge administrative costs and responsibility besides unlimited liability for the government while in an insurance model the government is able to limit its financial liability.
Insurance model ensures lower administrative costs, better monitoring of the scheme and also experience in dealing with hospitals and fraud mitigation. Insurance companies further offer professional services in terms of claims management, information dissemination, grievance redressal, IT support and investigation and fraud control ensuring complete transparency and efficiency in operations. Insurance companies offer trained workforce that can contribute to the implementation of the scheme in a more efficient manner.
The proposal of the new policy at a much lower price for the people, instead of Arogya Sree, has been kept aside by the state government while the same policy has been approved by Rajasthan government. In fact, while the Andhra Pradesh CMO has to still take a call on this, The New India Assurance Company, Regional Office based at Jaipur, Rajasthan has already been informed about the awarding of the contract for implementation of health insurance scheme called the Bhamasha Swasthya Bima Yojana, for the years 2017-19.
The same re-insurance company had handed over the proposal to AP government just one and a half months ago. The insurance company has been informed by Bharti Dixit, additional chief executive officer of the Rajasthan State Health Assurance Agency that the company needs to open an account (escrow account) in a public sector bank.
