Over 2.79 cr BPL families issued health insurance

NEW DELHI: More than 2.79 crore BPL families in the country have so far been issued smart card-based health insurance under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana ( RSBY), the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.

The RSBY was launched in October, 2007 to provide smart card-based cashless health insurance cover of Rs 30,000 per annum to BPL families (a unit of five) in the unrecognised sector.

"It is presently being implemented in 24 states and Union Territories," Minister of Labour and Employment, Mallikarjun Kharge said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

Out of 2,97,87,800 families enrolled until February this year, about 33 lakh have availed benefits in the hospitals, the minister said.

"The RSBY has received good response from the states including backward regions in the country. The surveys conducted so far has indicated beneficiary satisfaction ratio ranging from 77 per cent to 92 per cent," he added.

Kharge also noted that various schemes, besides the RSBY, have been initiated to provide social security to unorganised workers. The schemes include the Aam Admi Bima Yojana (AABY) and Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS).

While AABY envisages providing insurance against death and disability to landless rural households, IGNOAPS provides a pension amount of Rs 200 per month to persons living below the poverty line and aged above 60 years, the minister said. "For persons above the age of 80 years, the amount of pension has been raised to Rs 500 per month," he added.

A total of 21,25,009 people have been added in the AABY scheme until February 2012, while 19,029,041 people were the beneficiaries of IGNOAPS, Kharge said.