22 lakh poor families to come under health insurance cover

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala plans to bring 22 lakh families at the bottom level of society under the modified version of the Centre’s Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY), an ambitious health insurance scheme for the poor, now being implemented in the State, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has said.
Addressing a national conference on the insurance scheme here on Wednesday, he said 11.79 lakh families in the State, coming under the BPL (below the poverty line) norms of the Planning Commission, had already been covered by the modified RSBY, called the Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.
He said the norms, in reality, would keep out large sections of the poor from the purview of the RSBY. Therefore, the State government would bear the expenses towards the insurance premium of over 10 lakh more poor families. Families in the APL (above the poverty line) category too could join the scheme on paying the insurance premium.