SHILLONG, NOV 19: The state government has set a target to roll out the implementation of the Meghalaya Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) Phase-IV either before Christmas or by January next year.
“All the ground works have been done and we are proposing to launch the scheme before Christmas this year or by the first week of January, next year,” Health Minister AL Hek told reporters here on Monday.
Informing that the process of technical and financial bidding has been completed, Hek said that what is left now is to issue the work order.
Asked, the minister said that altogether seven bidders participated in the bidding process of which one has not qualified.
“On opening the financial bid, the Reliance General Insurance Company Limited is the lowest bidder. The company has quoted Rs 1630 (premium) per household,” he said.
The government has also decided to merge the MHIS with the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat to provide a health insurance of Rs 5 lakh per family.
The MHIS-III scheme had ended in September 25 last after two extensions while nearly 8 lakh families, including 3.41 lakh of the lowest income families, are set to get the benefits under the MHIS-IV.
The delay in implementation of the MHIS-IV has resulted in 4.4 lakh beneficiaries losing insurance benefits for three months due to the delay in implementation of the scheme.
The minister further informed that the MHIS is far better than the Ayushman Bharat as the former is having more than 2500 packages while the latter with only 1000 packages.
“However, we will implement the Ayushman Bharat in the MHIS model in our state,” he said.
Stating that the registration for Ayushman Bharat is fixed at Rs 50 per household, Hek however said the state government has decided to fix it at Rs 100 per household since it wanted to issue the best smart card to the beneficiaries.
By Our Reporter
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