Uttar Pradesh villagers unaware of ‘Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna’

GORAKHPUR - The villagers in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur District are unable to take advantage of the Health Smart Cards that have been provided to them by the Central Government under the ‘Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna’ (National Health Insurance Scheme).

The objective of the scheme is to provide the insurance cover to below poverty line (BPL) households for major health problems that involve hospitalization.

The 300 to 350 cardholders here feel that the cards are useless for them, as they are unaware of the facilities provided by it.

“They have not even informed us about the basic things, like how it is going to facilitate us or how many medicines are we going to get. We don’t even know to which hospital do we have to go with this card,” said Ramdeen, a villager.

“We have been informed nothing about this card. This is useless to us,” he added.

Smart Card, which is believed to make the whole process of hospitalisation cashless, has made the process confusing for the villagers.

“They would write some tests like blood tests or X-ray, but we will never get the reports of the tests. We are not even informed about the fact that what is the result of the test. Without telling us what disease we are suffering from, they would just write names of few medicines,” said District Village Council Head Manoj Kumar Morya.

“They would just take our signatures on papers. We are not even informed about the deducted money from the card or how much money is left in the card. We all are village people, we don’t understand much and this way we are not able to use this card properly,” he added.

The authorities, however, said they have made all the provisions to inform the cardholders about the card and its utilities.

“As far as information is concerned, all the rural development departments and village development officials are well informed about the smart card and its utilities. One just has to go to them and ask about it,” said Chief Medical Officer Dr. R.N.Mishra.

“I am sure that they will definitely tell them about the advantages and process of using the card,” he added.

The ‘Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna’ is a Central Government scheme that was announced by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on August 15, 2007.

It was formally launched on October 1, 2007.

An amount of Rs. 30 is charged as registration fee to apply for the smart card, which permits five members of a family to enroll for the card.

The Health Smart Card can provide hospitalization coverage of up to Rs.30, 000 to its beneficiaries. It also covers transportation cost up to of Rs. 100 per visit. (ANI)