Revised Employees Health Scheme: TG employees likely to end up paying more premium
Restive staff want govt to release modalities
Hyderabad: The government employees in Telangana are likely to end up paying higher premium towards the insurance scheme proposed by the government, compared to government staff in other states as the administration had decided to deduct 1.5 per cent of the basic salary.
For the unversed, under the revised Employees Health Scheme (EHS) in Telangana, working staff and pensioners are required to contribute 1.5% of their basic pay to access cashless health coverage. The state government will match this with an equal 1.5% contribution.
The funds are routed into a dedicated Employee Health Care Trust (EHCT), which oversees the cashless health insurance scheme. Beneficiaries receive coverage for nearly 2,000 medical procedures and can access cashless treatment at government hospitals and hundreds of empanelled private hospitals.
However, some staff unions have expressed frustration that deductions have occurred prior to the rollout of digital health cards and finalised hospital agreements. A section of the employees points out that the percentage of deduction by the government would not help without baring the modalities of the scheme.
According to the employees, in most States government employee health insurance schemes operate with a fixed monthly contribution ranging from Rs 300 to Rs 810 per month and provide coverage between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 20 lakh per family. Some states also provide government-funded schemes with little or no employee contribution. However, Telangana has proposed a contribution of 1.5 per cent of basic pay, resulting in widely varying monthly contributions among employees.
So, how did the government arrive at a decision to deduct 1.5 per cent from the basic pay? The Health Department had estimated that Rs 1,056 crore would be enough for giving health insurance to the 3.75 lakh employees and 2.5 lakh pensioners in the state.
It was then decided that half of this amount will be the employees’ share and the remaining half the government’s contribution; that is, Rs 528 crore each. To recover this, the government decided to deduct 1.5 per cent of the basic pay from employees and pensioners.
There are different types of schemes in other states in the country. The neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh has a scheme in which the employee contribution is Rs 300 per month, which has been implemented since 2014.
The Kerala state has employee contribution of Rs 810 per month with coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family per year and cashless treatment in empanelled hospitals on a package basis. In Madhya Pradesh, the employee contribution is Rs 600 per month with coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family and the treatment is available in empanelled hospitals.
Some states like Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir have no employee contribution and provide a cashless treatment up to Rs 5 lakh in empanelled private hospitals and no financial ceiling for treatment in government hospitals.
