Kathmandu, March 16: The Ministry of Health and Population has made public the report prepared by the Health Insurance Reforms Recommendations Task Force.
In a program held at the Ministry, Health Minister Pradeep Paudel said that health insurance could be managed and strengthened without causing any burden on the common citizens, and the government is moving in this direction.
“We have advanced the action plan prepared by the Ministry and the Health Insurance Board,” he said. “Now it will be made mandatory to have a unit at every local level to provide health insurance.”
Minister Paudel said that the responsibility of health insurance does not only belong to the federal government but also the local government. Health insurance is the responsibility of three levels of government. The amount spent by all three levels of government for citizens’ treatment, could be utilized to strengthen the insurance fund. This is possible only if three levels of government join hands, Paudel said.
Insurance authority issues directives on monetary loss insuranc...
Minister Paudel said that if such a fund, which amounted to Rs. 30 billion, is utilized through a single-door system by creating a health insurance fund, then it would address the current financial crunch.
There is no way to spend Rs 3 billion on health insurance every year in the budget. “However, this year, we have been able to increase it by leaps and bounds,” he said, adding that in the next budget, it will be increased to 10 billion rupees.
Arrangements have been made to strengthen the existing health insurance fund by putting taxes on sugary items, which have an increased impact on health, and on taxes on products causing pollution, smoke, alcohol, etc., which have adverse effects on health. Only a small part of it should go directly to the health insurance fund, he said.
“We have started initiatives to ensure that the tax money is transferred directly to the insurance fund without causing any burden on the citizens.”
He said that if reforms are introduced to the health insurance without considering it as not merely a program of the Health Ministry, then it will be an effective program.
Discussing that many such resources can be brought into the insurance fund, Minister Poudel announced a plan to arrange for the health insurance program for state employees to be funded from the Health Insurance Fund, with one percent of the salary to be paid by the citizen and the remaining one percent by the state.
Minister Poudel said that the Health Insurance Fund can be made stronger than it is now, and expressed confidence that socialism in health can be implemented through it.
The task force led by Dr. Sambhu Acharya had submitted its report to Minister Poudel on May 16. The committee included senior cardiologist Dr. Bhagwan Koirala, development economist and current Executive Director of the Health Insurance Board Dr. Raghuraj Kafle, along with officials from the Ministry of Health and Finance.
Based on the report prepared by the committee, an action plan was also presented to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. The ministry has made both public and moved forward with the implementation phase, informed Spokesperson Dr. Prakash Budhathoki.
