Kathmandu: The Health Insurance Board(HIB) has collected Rupees 2.73 billion during last eight and half months duration.
According to the data made public by the HIB, Rs.2.738 billion has been collected from January to mid-September 2021. As per the data published on its website, the month of June remained the highest premium earning month for year 2021 till date. During July alone, it has collected 1.2 billion insurance premium. It accounts to 56.17 percent of the total premium income.
HIB has been providing health insurance service through it’s member hospital across the nation. A total of 14.96 percent of the total population has been benefited by the health insurance scheme. It means than more than 45 lakh 16 thousand people are covered under health insurance scheme.
Source: Health Insurance Board, Nepal
Among the seven provinces, Province No. 1 is on the top of list with the highest number of insured i.e. 459,230. While Karnali province has the lowest number of insured i.e. 75,012. Beside that, though being a very accessible and developed province in terms of road, education and health infrastructure, only 84,664 people are insured in Province No.2.
Source: Health Insurance Board, Nepal
Individual health insurance cover upto Rs.100k sum assured is guaranteed with the payment of Rs.3,500 annual premium for a family of five members. Additional premium is payable for additional number of insured.
Ineffectiveness of health insurance scheme:
Though the government has implement it as a social welfare program. The program has been widely criticized due to the hassles faced by the insured while undergoing treatment or purchasing medicine from the pharmacy.
Most of the well-known hospitals are over-crowded due to the free treatment under this scheme, while the hospitals lack adequate manpower and physical infrastructure.
On the other hand, most of the medicine prescribed by the doctors are unavailable at the nearby pharmacy of the hospitals.
