PANJIM: The BJP-led government’s ambitious Deen Dayal Swasthya Seva Yojana (DDSSY) finally kicked off on Thursday, making Goa the first State in the country to provide health insurance cover to its entire 15 lakh population.
As many as 447 aliments including mental illness, ayurvedic treatment and long-term medication for chronic lifestyle diseases such as hypertension and diabetes will be available at 19 empanelled private hospitals and four government-run including Goa Medical College (GMC) and Hospital.
With the aim of making Goa an ideal medical destination, the government has warned private hospitals that their empanelment under the scheme would be cancelled if they fail to provide quality service to the patients.
The government is also contemplating to bring its employees under the DDSSY cover for upto Rs 4 lakh per family, thereafter granting limitless medical reimbursement.
In days to come, the primary health centers (PHC) and Community Health Centers (CHC) are also likely to be empanelled under the scheme.
Addressing the formal function of the DDSSY implementation, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, admitting that the scheme does have operational discrepancies, said the scheme would be reviewed after March 31, 2017.
“We have been working on the scheme for the last four years and hence today Goa became the only State in the country to provide medical cover for its entire population,” he claimed.
“We believe that other States would also imitate our scheme,” Parsekar said informing the State would be spending nearly Rs 100-140 crore on the scheme.
The scheme would be implemented by M/s United India Insurance Co Ltd at a premium price of Rs 3206 per family for next five years. Consent letters were awarded to all the empanelled hospitals.
“In the days to come, we want to project Goa as an ideal medical destination rather than being known only as tourism destination. We are working in this respect and this scheme is a step towards it,” the chief minister said.
