Insurance Coverage For All Within 3 Years
May 16, 2020 | Investopaper
The government plans to provide health insurance to all Nepalese within the next three years. So far, more than 2.7 million people have health insurance and the rest will be covered within three years, President Vidyadevi Bhandari has announced. Announcing the government’s policies and programs, President Bhandari said that non-basic health services will be gradually included in the health insurance program.
This program started from 3 districts as a model in FY 2072/73 and expanded to 12 more districts in FY 2073/74. The program reached to 21 districts in FY 2074/75 and 10 districts in FY 2075/76 and has reached 51 districts so far.
When the program started, there was a plan to provide health insurance to all Nepalese in three years. Now the government has resumed the same program. Currently, this program is being operated by the Health Insurance Board. The board has not been able to work well due to ineffective work, lack of skilled staff, delay in leadership selection and other reasons.
The government has started the health insurance program about five years ago with the objective of providing access to health services to the poor, destitute and other target groups. The health insurance program has been started from Kailali as a model from Chaitra 2072. At that time, the government had announced to provide health insurance to all Nepalese within the next three years. More than two years after the deadline, the government has not met its target.
The health insurance program for senior citizens has not been effective due to lack of health insurance program across the country. The program has been started from Baisakh 2076 with the objective of providing free health insurance up to Rs 100,000 to senior citizens above 70 years of age. This is a program brought through last year’s budget by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. Currently, the senior citizens of the districts where the program is run have got free health insurance facility.