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BENGALURU: The state’s ambitious universal health scheme , Arogya Karnataka , which aims to provide free treatment to all patients regardless of income, was rolled out in Bengaluru on Friday.

The project with an estimated cost of Rs 2,000 crore which aims to cover 1.4 crore families will be implemented in all government hospitals from March 5. The scheme promises free treatment up to Rs 1.5 lakh for each Below Poverty Line (BPL) family in private hospitals every year, while the government will foot 30% of bills up to Rs 1.5 lakh in case of Above Poverty Line (APL) families.

The scheme, though, comes with a rider. To avail benefits of Arogya Karnataka, the patient has to first go to a government hospital. Only if the required treatment is not available in the government hospital, can s/he be referred to any of the empanelled private hospitals. Also, one has to declare that s/he is not a beneficiary of any other government/private health insurance scheme. TOI was the first to report the rider in May 2017.

Health minister K R Ramesh Kumar said Rs 1.5 lakh is only an interim price cap. “If the bill exceeds Rs 1.5 lakh, the government will bear the entire expenditure. But in all probability, it will not happen because the government will soon constitute a price-fixing committee that will cap the cost of procedures. A C-section delivery in a government hospital costs not more than Rs 4,000, but it is more than Rs 40,000 in a private hospital. The price-capping committee will look into these issues,” the minister told TOI.

Recent amendments made to the Karnataka Private Medical establishment (KPME) Act include regulation of treatment cost, he pointed out. About the Modicare scheme announced by the Centre in its recent budget, Kumar said, “That is insurance, but ours is an assurance.”

Launching the project, chief minister Siddaramaiah said it aims at building a healthy society. “No state has implemented such a scheme; we are the first. It’s a brainchild of health minister Ramesh Kumar. Issuing Arogya Karnataka cards will be a continuous process, which will not have a time frame. Anyone who walks into a government hospital can get the card issued by following the required procedure,” he said.

