Health insurance for PwDs

A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Trust Fund for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and The New India Assurance Company Limited to launch Group Mediclaim Policy for empowerment of persons with disabilities (PwDs) – “Swavlamban Health Insurance Scheme” The scheme has been designed to deliver comprehensive cover to the beneficiary as well as his family (PwD, spouse & up to two children) has a single premium across age band and can be availed of by the PwDs aged between 18 years and 65 years.

The family annual income should be less than Rs 3,00,000 per annum. The scheme ensures coverage of any pre-existing condition and a health Insurance cover up to Rs 2, 00,000 per annum as family floater. Health services and its access to persons with disabilities assume a very significant role in order to enable and empower persons with disabilities to live independently and with dignity as possible.

In this context, the Health Insurance facility becomes important but presently such products are not easily available for persons with developmental disabilities. In such a situation, a tailor-made group health Insurance scheme has been conceived with the objective of providing affordable health insurance to persons with blindness, low vision, leprosy-cured, hearing impairment, loco-motor Disability, mental Retardation and mental Illness.

The scheme will be implemented through active participation of the National Institutes and Composite Regional Centres for Persons with Disabilities (CRC’s) under the DEPwD, MOSJ&E. The registered organisations shall liaise with the Insurance Company, MOSJ&E, Health service providers, National Institutes, CRCs and all the stakeholders concerned for awareness generation and enrolment. Under the MoU, the New India Assurance Company Limited will create a network of Hospitals, where the Insured persons can get cashless treatment.

Meanwhile, the Central government has said that work on the 'Universal Identity Card,’ announced last year to ascertain the exact number of physically challenged citizens in the country, would begin from February next. The project will also enable the PwDs to access benefits of various Central government schemes. People with lesser degree of physical deformity will also be considered as 'disabled' and issued ID cards. A Bill has been tabled in the Parliament to widen the criteria of disabilities from existing seven categories to 19 categories.