MINISTRY OF HEALTH CALLED FOR 'REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL' FROM INSURANCE COMPANIES FOR PROVIDING ' Central Government Employees and Pensioners Health Insurance Scheme'
CONFEDERATION SECRETARY GENERAL CALLED UPON OUR OPINIONS ON HEALTH INURANCE SCHEME
Dear Comrades! - The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has already called for "Request for Proposal" from General Insurance Companies for implementation of Central Government Employees and Pensioners Health Insurance scheme. NFPE published salient points in its Postal Crusader January 2010 issue at the time of the Ministry of Health calling for Expression of Interest from General Insurance Companies for prividing the health insurance. Now the Ministry of Health has called for "REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL" from the interested General Insurance Companies asking them to submit their 'Bid' before 30.03.2010.
Confederation has sought the opinion of all afiliates on this Health Insurance Scheme in order to discuss and take our position in the ensuing Secretariat Meeting of Confederation.
The Scheme is compulsory for all future employees and future retirees - Optional for the existing pensioners and existing employees - But the existing employees have no option when they retire.
Insurance Company should ensure that the beneficiaries need not pay any deposit at the commencement of treatment or at the end of treatment.
There appears that the facility for 'Out-Patient Treatment' as available at present through CGHS and CS MA Rules may not be available under the new Health Insurance Scheme except for 'Pre and Post hospitalization check ups.
Maternity Benefit exclusion clauses not available for those officials having two or more living children.
Any dental treatment or surgery which is corrective nature etc are not covered under the scheme - Congenital diseases are not covered -Ayurveda, Sidha, Unani and Naturopathy not allowed unless taken as inpatient in empanelled hospitals.
NFPE requests all Circle Unions and Divisional and Branch unions to download the full text of the Health Ministry's document by clicking on the Link below and study the same and send in their opinions by E-mail to the Federation at the earliest. An opinion poll in this issue is also placed in the NFPE Website on the left side margins of the website. Comrades are invited to participate in the poll to express their opinion but only after studying the whole Health Insurance Scheme. Please do not vote before studying and comparing the present CGHS Scheme.
3 comments:
Comrade,
The concept of health insurance is a good idea. But before accepting it we should ensure that the present system of reimbursement is not done away with at one go.Moreover the companies are now making moderate offers only because there are good govt hospitals offering better services at cheaper costs.Once this is weakened the companies will retrace from the attractive schemes and the poorer people will be put to hardships. This actually happened in US. That's why Obama is now hunting the Health Insurance Companies. So let us be more cautious before taking any decision.
S.Viswanathan Trivandrum GPO
Insurance Scheme for the Government Employees and Pensioners is a very good idea. It gives the freedom of treatment of ailments setting away the conventional procedures. When an insurance scheme is being accepted, the insured should have a freedom of selection of different branches of medical sciences for treatment. There should not a discrimination of such nature. The dental treatment should also be covered under the health insurance scheme. The stand on corrective measures and congential disorders should also be extensively examined.
AS Mr prakash said the new scheme liberates us from conventional procedures and paperwork involved and the hasseles involved in reimbusing the spent amount form CGHS. However the track record of private insurence companies even state owned insurers in setteling claims and convincing them about the treatment undertaken is very very poor. Also the Rs 5,00,000 cap per family is very meager considering the ever rising medical costs. we must make sure that the new system must be an over all improvement from the earlier one(CGHS) and not just a cosmetic excercise.
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