Chandigarh, Dec 25 (IANS) In a New Year bonanza for residents, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday gave the green signal to the Health Department to launch Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojna from January to enable cashless treatment of Rs 10 lakh to every family in the state. Reviewing a meeting of the Health Department here, CM Mann said Mukh Mantri Sehat Beema Yojna is a step towards providing universal healthcare facilities to people without spending even a penny on it.  “This is a step towards providing universal healthcare and ensuring that people get cashless treatment of Rs 10 lakh. Punjab will be the first state in the country where every family will be entitled to cashless treatment of up to Rs 10 lakh,” he said. 

The Chief Minister said the yojna is a flagship health assurance initiative of the government aimed at providing financial protection and assured access to quality healthcare to all eligible residents of the state. “The scheme is a major step towards universal health coverage, under which each enrolled family is entitled to cashless medical treatment up to Rs 10 lakh per year,” he added. CM Mann said, “The scheme covers major illnesses, critical care, surgeries, and life-saving treatments at a wide network of empanelled government and private hospitals across Punjab and Chandigarh, ensuring equitable access to healthcare services.” 

The key objective is to ensure cashless and paperless healthcare at empanelled hospitals and to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure on secondary and tertiary healthcare. “Likewise, it will strengthen equitable access to healthcare services across urban and rural areas and provide timely grievance redressal and beneficiary support through digital platforms,” the Chief Minister said. He said all the expenses like hospitalisation costs, surgeries and medical procedures, ICU and critical care services, diagnostics, medicines, and consumables as per approved packages, pre-and post-hospitalisation expenses and others will be covered under it.