Covid-19 Outbreak: Maharashtra Govt To Give Free Health Insurance To All Citizens In State

The health scheme will now include government, semi-government employees and white ration card holders in the scheme in a bid to prevent private hospitals from overcharging patients

Rajesh Tope said the government will provide free and cashless insurance to its people. (File Photo/ Getty)

Mumbai: In a first, the state of Maharasthra has announced that all citizens will be covered under the state government's health scheme Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana (MJPJAY), which had already covered 85 per cent of the population. Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope said the government will provide free and cashless insurance to its people, according to the PTI report. At present 85 per cent of the state's population is covered under the MJPJAY and the cover will be now extended to the remaining 15 per cent. Documents such as ration card and domicile certificates are required to apply for the scheme. In order to prevent private hospitals from overcharging patients, a memorandum has been signed to include government, semi- government employees, and white ration card holders in the scheme. "The government has signed an MoU with the General Insurance Public Sector Association (GIPSA) for treatment of Covid-19 patients at private hospitals in Pune and Mumbai," he further added. In due course of time, different packages will be implemented for all diseases which will standardise the cost of treatment across hospitals in the state. The scheme has covered 496 hospitals earlier but now it will bring over 1,000 hospitals under the scheme. As per the Disaster Management Act and Epidemic Act, the state has already capped the fees of Covid-19 treatment in private hospitals. Hospitals that don't have a tie-up with the GIPSA will also have to bring down their cost of treatment.

Maharashtra remains to be the worst-affected state with a total of 11,506 Covid-19 positive cases so far. The total number of cases in India has crossed the 37,336-mark with 1,218 deaths reported so far. Around 9,950 people have recovered until now. Of the total cases reported so far, 111 include foreign nationals.