New health cover for the poor

For the country's poor, for whom maintaining good health is usually a benison from God, a health insurance cover may soon be for real.

This, according to a proposal of the chemicals & petrochemicals ministry, will be provided under a scheme that is to see pharmaceutical companies adopt rural districts and pay the insurance premia of the population.

The scheme, targeted to cover below-poverty-line families, will operate on a voluntary basis and may be a part of the forthcoming National Pharmaceutical Policy.

The adopting companies will be compensated through a 50 per cent increase in their MAPE (maximum allowable post-manufacturing expenses) on drugs whose prices are controlled by the government.

All 354 bulk drugs on the National List of Essential Medicines are expected to come under cost-based price control in the forthcoming policy.

As per the scheme under consideration, there will be three elements to the health cover that is to be funded by the companies.

The

first will be provision of medicines to BPL families through chemists which, in turn, will be reimbursed by the insurance company that the adopting pharma company has tied up with. The second will be monthly medical camps and the third a revolving fund with the government.

"We want the companies to pool back in the scheme at least half of the incremental profits they make out of the 50 per cent higher mark up on drugs. If some company ends up spending less than the required amount, the balance goes to this revolving fund through which the government would then provide free drugs to BPL families," said an official of the department of chemicals and petrochemicals.

The number of districts to be adopted by each company will depend on its turnover. While the companies are free to choose their insurance partners, the premium will be fixed by the government. State health departments and the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority will be the monitoring agencies for the scheme.