In the first phase, the health insurance cover will benefit workers and families living Below Poverty Line in the unorganised sector.
NEW DELHI: In keeping with the promise made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his Independence Day address, the Government will launch on October two a Health Insurance Scheme for 40 crore unorganised sector workers.
In the first phase, the health insurance cover will benefit workers and families living Below Poverty Line in the unorganised sector and States have already been asked to formulate projects, a Labour Ministry official told on Sunday.
Under the scheme, the launch of which was approved by the Union Cabinet earlier this month, it shall be the responsibility of the implementing agencies to verify the eligibility of the unorganised sector workers and his family members who are proposed to benefited.
The beneficiaries under the 'Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana' will be issued smart cards with social security number for the purpose of identification.
The scheme envisages life and disability cover to all rural landless households in the country. The insurance cover will be for Rs.75,000 on death due to accident and permanent disability due to accident.
In case of partial disability due to accident, the insurance cover would be Rs.37,500 and upon death of a member, prior to terminal date, Rs.30,000 is the insurance amount.
The premium to be charged under the scheme will be Rs.200 per year per member of which the Centre is likely to bear 75 per cent of the cost, 25 per cent more than what was planned earlier. The Finance Minister has already committed Rs.1,000 crore for the scheme in the Budget. The remaining amount will be given by State Governments, he said.
"The coverage of BPL families represents just a beginning," according to Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes, who said that the objective of the scheme is to cover all workers in the unorganised sector including those living Above Poverty LIne (APL) in a phased manner.
The Prime Minister had announced from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15 that "we are working on a health insurance model so that our poor do not have to bear the high cost of medical care".
The Health Insurance Scheme was mooted by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) on whose recommendations the umbrella legislation on the unorganised sector workers has been introduced in Parliament.
Unorganised sector workers constitute 93 per cent of the country's total workforce and contribute 65 per cent of the GDP.
The health insurance will benefit all sections of unorganised workers including agricultural, construction and domestic workers, richshaw-pullers and self-employed people.
Trade Unions, however, fear that insistence on State Governments' contributions could create problems for the scheme as their finances are in bad shape.
They are also apprehensive that the scheme might not help if there were no doctors and health infrastructure, particularly in rural areas.
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