Thiruvananthapuram: The Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhati (KASP) that provides health coverage of Rs 5 lakh for ordinary people and the working class is on its sickbed.
Despite the tragic state of affairs where even heart surgeries for the poor have been put on hold, the state government has chosen to pay no attention to the crisis.
Thirty-four hospitals, including government medical colleges in the state, offered expensive treatment to the poor under the scheme. Now, those frequenting such hospitals in the hope of getting free treatment have to cough up money from their own pockets.
The Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CHIS) Plus scheme that preceded KASP offered free treatment of up to Rs 70,000 to poor patients. However, the Rs 70 crore debt aggregated under the CHIS Plus scheme have now forced agencies to stop providing medical provisions to hospitals.
The agencies have already stopped providing stents and other related materials used in heart surgeries to Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha medical college hospitals. The Thiruvananthapuram medical college alone owes Rs 20.06 crore to stent distribution agencies.
The agencies have warned that they won't provide materials to other medical colleges and district hospitals in Alappuzha and Ernakulam from July 15.
The distributors of operation theatre equipment and labs that carry out expensive tests and scans are also not providing their services and products to the hospitals. State-run Hindustan Life Care Limited has also stopped their services to these hospitals.
About 40.60 lakh families were eligible to take the insurance card under the KASP scheme that began on April 1. From these, about 75 per cent of the families have already received their cards.
When patients shell out money from their own pockets for treatment, Reliance General Insurance, which is providing the insurance cover, is making crores of rupees.
Though hospital authorities are claiming that the government will reimburse the money spent by the patients, the state government has not made any statement on this regard.
Dharna on July 18
Malappuram: In protest against the government's decision to stop the Karunya scheme and shield erring officials, UDF MALs will hold a dharna before the Secretariat on July 18, said opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala.
"The government has to come clean on its decision to stop a scheme that could provide up to Rs 2 lakh in emergency assistance for treatment to the poor. The plan that replaced the scheme, Ayushman Bharat, is not yet operational. The MEDISEP insurance plan for government employees and pensioners too have come a cropper," he said.
