Health cover for Punjab from next year, vows PM

hafizabad — Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said that half of the residents of Punjab would receive the governmentissued health cards by the end of this year while the entire province would receive health insurance by next year.

Addressing a public gathering after performing the groundbreaking of a university and a 400-bed hospital in Hafizabad city of Punjab, the prime minister said the journey to develop Pakistan as a welfare state had begun as the government had initiated pro-poor initiatives like health insurance card, shelter homes and easy loans for house building.

The health card will allow its holders to get treatment at any hospital, government or private, of up to Rs1 million.

“This is happening for the first time in Pakistan’s 73 years history. Even the developed countries do not have such a facility as the one that is being provided to the people of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he remarked.

He said the initiative would also lead to the development of a network of private hospitals across the two provinces because the people with the insurance facility would be visiting the private hospitals for treatment.

Khan said besides building shelter homes for poor people, the government had also launched the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme under which banks pro

This kind of health insurance is not available even in rich countries. Because of this, private hospitals will be built in areas like Hafizabad imran khan

Prime Minister

vided loans on easy terms to lowincome people for building their own homes.

He said a 5 per cent mark-up would be charged on loans which is almost equal to the amount paid as house rent — much easier to repay the loan. — Agencies