Sehat Insaf Card: A blessing for millions of patients to avail free medical treatment By Taj Nabi Khan

ISLAMABAD, (APP):The Sehat Sahulat programme or Sehat Insaf Card, one of the flagship projects of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been
proved no less than a blessing for millions of patients during testing times of their lives.
The project has won the hearts and minds of the people as it facilitates critical patients with severe diseases.
Besides, it is always difficult for people, especially those living below the poverty line to financially support critical patients and lethal diseases.
The complicated diseases and critical nature of patients almost make it impossible even for the average-income families to bear the charges of laboratory tests, x-rays, CT scans, medicines and hospital etc. Other than financial burden, the family also carries the load of psychological tension and physical labor to run after the laboratory tests and arrange medicines from outside of hospitals.
Looking into the sufferings of people, the incumbent government has decided to minimize the burden on the public in the health sector. Therefore, it has conceived a well-planned programme of Sehat Insaf Card to address the financial problems of the patients in the approved list of public and private sector hospitals of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
The annual health insurance covers Rs. 1 million for around six million families of the province thus enabling the whole population of 40 million people to avail
free medical treatment in more than 250 public and private sector hospitals of the country.
It is pertinent to mention that an agreement was signed between the KP government and State Life Insurance Corporation regarding distribution of the Sehat Insaf Card.
Initially, the initiative of Sehat Sahulat programme was launched in KP in September 2016 to provide free healthcare to families living below the poverty line. But later the service was extended to all segments of the society.
The successful trial of the project in KP would probably help the stakeholders to extend healthcare facility to maximum hospitals of the country.
The people have also urged the government to extend the facility of Sehat Insaf Card to all federating units to financially support the patients.
Provincial Minister for Health, Taimur Salim Jhagra informed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly earlier this month that around 7.47 million people have registered themselves under the Sehat Insaf Card.
They are now entitled to get free healthcare facilities from the scheme.
He said the health facilities are being given to the people irrespective of their political affiliation.
The critical diseases such as cancer and heart diseases are also included in the scheme, he informed.
Talking to APP, a beneficiary of the scheme Sher Alam at Nowshera Medical Complex said, “I found the government healthcare programme a great initiative as it has helped me a lot to get the required medicines timely for my admitted mother
free-of-charge in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).”
However, he said, since this was a new programme, the approved list of medicines lacked a number of urgently required and necessary medicines which the patients had to arrange from outside.
The healthcare scheme should also be made more transparent — if the phone number of the beneficiary should get a message for each deduction charges of the medicine from the total package like the message received on each transaction of electronic banking, he suggested.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Prof. Dr. Mehr Taj Roghani told APP that the initiative of the healthcare programme facilitates people of the province across the board without any discrimination.
She, however said, “The healthcare scheme of Sehat Insaf Card should facilitate the downtrodden class of the society only who cannot afford the expenses of medical treatment.” The programme should also allocate funds to facilitate the disable and special persons in the society, she added.
Another beneficiary of the scheme, Yaseen Dad, told this news agency that the procedural complexities should be minimized and simplified to help facilitate the patients to get the required medicines easily. Terming the initiative new yet wonderful in the health sector of the country, he said, “Still there was a lot of room for improvement.”
Along with financial support, the infrastructure and health service delivery in public sector hospitals should also be focused, he added.
Replying to a question regarding making the project a countrywide healthcare programme, Roghani said, the Sehat Insaf Card would gradually be expanded to the whole country to help facilitate the poor strata of the society.
She said, “The project is a milestone achievement of the incumbent government for the ailing community, particularly those who were unable to afford the expenses of modern-day healthcare facilities.”
“The initiative helps resolve on an emergency basis almost all health-related financial problems,” she added.