Thursday, May 12, 2011

Govt mulls health insurance for civil servants

KATHMANDU, May 10: The government has agreed in principle to provide health insurance to all civil servants, their spouses and children up to the age of 21 years.

Agreeing on the proposal floated by the Ministry of General Administration (MoGA), the cabinet meeting recently decided to set up a study team to prepare a detailed plan on health insurance. According to officials at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM), the cabinet will take a final decision after reviewing a study report.

"The objective is to motivate the civil servants toward duty," said Chief Secretary Madhav Ghimire.

As per the plan floated by the MoGA, the health insurance will cover not only the civil servant but also his/her family members including spouse and two children.

The proposal envisages annual expenses of up to Rs 500,000 for a family in a given year.

According to the MoGA proposal presented at the OPMCM, health insurance will cover all hospitalization expenses including specified pre-hospitalization and post hospitalization/convalescence period] arising from illnesses resulting from accidents or any other illnesses that are of non-recurrent nature. This rules out diabetes, hypertension, epilepsy etc.

"It covers expenses incurred with respect to the treatment based on modern medicine only except jaundice for which Ayurvedic treatment cost is also borne," Binod KC, spokesperson of the MoGA quoted the proposal.

The government had begun preparation regarding the insurance facility nearly seven years ago.

The government will have to incur an additional liability of about Rs 600-700 million annually to introduce this scheme.

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=31124

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