TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: The Goa government’s Swarnajayanti Arogya Bima Yojana, or universal mediclaim scheme which is being reworked to raise the insurance cover from Rs 60,000 to Rs 2 lakh, will be ready for launch by April, Health Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said on Monday.
Speaking at a function on the occasion of World Cancer Day, Parsekar said, “As a government we’re trying to bring cancer screening and detection, even cardiac detection and sugar (diabetes) under the Universal Mediclaim scheme. Initially the scheme limit was Rs 60,000 and now we’re going for Rs Two lakh ceiling. It will be tendered anytime now,” Parsekar said.
‘Swarnajayanti Arogya Bima Yojana’ was launched by erstwhile Digambar Kamat-led government in 2011 in particular by Health Minister Vishwajit Rane where private hospitals were to be empanelled to provide cashless health insurance to the tune of Rs 60,000 per family for all kinds of treatment. Several private practitioners were unwilling to endorse the scheme as it had prescribed a meagre amount for various ailments.
According to statistics revealed by Dr Shekhar Salkar, oncologist at Manipal Hospital Goa has brought down its rates of oral cancer through successful control of tobacco.
“In Goa oral and tobacco related cancer is not more than 20% of the total cancers, whereas the national average is 35-45%,” Dr Salkar said.
In Goa however, he found that the incidence of lung cancer is higher among women as compared to the national average, which is a cause of concern. “At the national level 90 of 100 affected by lung cancer are men, but in Goa 40 out of 100 people afflicted with lung cancer are women,” Dr Salkar said.
Dr Salkar was quoting statistics obtained from patient records from the Goa Medical College and Hospital and they could vary if patient records of private hospitals too were taken into account.
