Kerala: State health agency comes into existence

Thiruvananthapuram: Health minister K K Shailaja has said the state health agency would converge all the government-sponsored healthcare schemes under one roof. This has been done to ensure that all the benefits of the government are reaching the people.

Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhathi (KASP), Karunya Benevolent Fund programme and Ayushman Bharat will now be under the state health agency, she said.

The minister, who inaugurated the state health agency here on Thursday, said that the government was committed to bring down the expense of the healthcare in the state.

The healthcare expense in the state is increasing daily and after the LDF government came to power it has been estimated that 50% of the people in the state are totally depended on the public healthcare.

When it came to power, it was only 33%. But the government has increased all the facilities in each hospital right from the primary healthcare to the medical college hospital such that people depend more on government hospitals, the minister added.

The government health insurance schemes have also increased the number of people depending on the government hospitals, she added.

The 100% treatment expense of 19,51,453 people who have registered under KASP is being provided by the government. In addition, 40% of the treatment expense of 22,01,131 people registered under the Central scheme of Ayushman Bharat is also being provided by the state.

Over the past two years, the government has provided 17.14 lakh medical claims and free treatment at an expense of Rs 1,036.89 crore, said the minister.

At present, 566 hospitals across the state have been registered under KASP of which 375 are private hospitals. It has now been decided to provide Rs 4 lakh each for the kidney transplant under this health insurance scheme, said the minister.