[ForumMasta]

Chief minister J. Jayalalithaa on Monday announced an improved medical insurance cover providing a maximum benefit of Rs.4 lakh for four years for a family.

The new scheme will cover 950 types of medical treatment as against the previous government's scheme of 642 types, Ms Jayalalithaa said.

"A family can avail of medical benefits up to Rs. 4 lakh for four years while it was `1 lakh for four years according to the previous scheme,“ she said.

Expenses on certain tests prior to and after surgerywill also be covered under the new scheme, `which were not there in the previous scheme'.

This scheme replaces the Kalaignar insurance scheme offering medical services for free to persons with annual income of Rs.72,000.

However, the new scheme also allots Rs.1.5 lakh per annum for some specific diseases.

Lashing out at the DMK, Ms Jayalalithaa said its scheme had benefited only private insurance firms and private hospitals and that it fell short of meeting people’s health needs completely.
The scheme will be expanded to government hospitals for better medical services, she said, adding they will also be provided the full amount like private hospitals.

Special wards will be created for this purpose to ensure more people utilised the services of government hospitals.

As this scheme is likely to take some time for implementation, the status quo will continue for certain life-saving treatments in private hospitals.

The government will directly pay the expenses for these treatments to the hospitals, she added.

- dc chennai