Prime Minister Imran Khan will launch Naya Pakistan Qaumi Sehat Card for the citizens of Faisalabad today. Resultantly each household of the Faisalabad division will be able to avail Universal Health Coverage of up to Rs 1 Million per year.
Farrukh Habib, the State Minister for Information and Broadcasting, made the announcement on Twitter.
“Today is an important day for the Faisalabad division, and thanks to Prime Minister Imran Khan that he is providing 3.2 million families in Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh, Jhang, Chiniot free medical treatment of Rs 1 million annually at selected private and government hospitals, ” Farrukh Habib tweeted.
Read more: Imran Khan visits Lahore: Launches Sehat Sahulat Card
According to details, PM Imran Khan will be accompanied by the Chief Minister of Punjab Usman Buzdar and some cabinet ministers.
فیصل آباد ڈویژن کی عوام کے لئے آج بہت بڑی خوشی کا دن ہے اور وزیراعظم عمران خان کا شکریہ جو آج فیصل آباد، ٹوبہ ٹیک سنگھ، جھنگ، چنیوٹ کے 32لاکھ خاندانوں پر مشتمل مکمل آبادی کو 10لاکھ روپے تک سالانہ منتخب شدہ پرائیویٹ اور سرکاری ہسپتالوں سے مفت علاج کے لئے صحت کارڈ کا اجرا کر رہے ہے pic.twitter.com/QR0eipwLdE
— Farrukh Habib (@FarrukhHabibISF) February 9, 2022
Universal health coverage for Pakistan
The facility encompasses treatment of cancer, kidney transplantation, chronic diseases, thalassemia, complications of diabetes, heart disease, nervous system surgery, organ failure and treatment in case of accidents.
Under the Prime Minister’s Welfare State Vision and Universal Health Insurance Program, Naya Pakistan Qaumi Sehat Card aims at providing free health care of up to Rs 1 Million per family per year to all permanent residents of Islamabad, Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Thar Parkar, Sindh.
It is pertinent to mention that this facility has already been provided to the entire population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while the strategy has been finalized to roll out Naya Pakistan Qaumi Sehat Card in the whole of Punjab by March 2022.
Every day thousands of patients in these provinces/regions are benefiting from the health card facility, and are extremely satisfied and grateful. The beneficiaries state that before provision of Sehat Card, they had to either take a loan or sell some assets to access better healthcare. But with the provision of Universal Health Coverage, they can now avail free treatment even in the best private hospitals.
Talha Hashmi, a beneficiary of the Sehat Insaf Card in Punjab, spoke to GVS and expressed his gratitude and thanked the government saying that without the Sehat card, he would not have been able to afford his wife’s nephrectomy treatment.
Read more: Qaumi Sahulat Card: Game Changer for Ordinary Pakistani
Needless to say, PM Khan’s Sehat Card is an ambitious program for Pakistan enabling the poor to receive good quality care never available to them earlier. If it is sustainable it will produce a competitive environment for public and private hospitals, motivating the public sector to keep up with their quality and improve their health services to compete with private-sector hospitals.