Govt to provide Rs 50 lakh insurance per health care worker for 3 months due to Coronavirus

The government proposes to provide insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh per person to frontline health workers - sanitation staff, paramedics and nurses, ASHA workers and doctors- who are working to tackle the COVID-19 illness and face the highest risk of contracting the illness.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced this on March 26, during a press conference. The insurance cover provided to the health workers will be for three months with effect from March 25, 2020. This is expected to benefit 22 lakh health workers handling the COVID-19 crisis across India, the FM said.

According to the PIB press release, the health insurance scheme for health workers fighting COVID-19 in Government Hospitals and Health Care Centres will cover the following:

• Safai karamcharis, ward-boys, nurses, ASHA workers, paramedics, technicians, doctors and specialists and other health workers would be covered by a Special insurance Scheme.
• Any health professional, who while treating Covid-19 patients, meet with some accident, then he/she would be compensated with an amount of Rs 50 lakh under the scheme.
• All government health centres, wellness centres and hospitals of Centre as well as States would be covered under this scheme approximately 22 lakh health workers would be provided insurance cover to fight this pandemic, according to the release.

Amid rising number of COVID-19 cases, the government has extended the insurance scheme for healthcare providers for another three months till September 2020.

(An earlier version of the story had incorrectly used the term health insurance which has now been rectified.)