CM to announce universal health cover for 65 lakh families today
The Punjab Government will announce its ambitious universal health cover for all 65 lakh families in the state on Tuesday, with the government looking for the scheme’s rollout in the next three months.
“Once the scheme is announced by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, it will be brought up for approval before the Cabinet by the end of the week,” confirmed a top functionary in the state government.
“Immediately thereafter, a tender will be floated to rope in an insurer. We are going to launch the scheme in three months. Each beneficiary will get a Sehat card to avail the treatment,” he added. The scheme was announced in the 2025-26 Budget and a sum of Rs 778 crore had been allocated for it. Under it, every family will be provided a health cover of Rs 10 lakh per annum.
It aimed at ensuring cashless and paperless treatment at any government or empanelled private hospitals in the state. There will be no ceiling on the size of a family, with every member covered under it.
With this, Punjab will become the first state to have a universal health insurance cover of Rs 10 lakh, irrespective of the income or place of residence of beneficiary.
Till date, only four other states — Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, West Bengal and Uttarakhand — provide a universal health insurance, but the maximum sum insured is Rs 5 lakh. While 45 lakh families of Punjab — nearly 1.97 crore people — are already covered under the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana and the Mukh Mantri Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana providing a health cover of Rs 5 lakh, they will get another top up cover of Rs 5 lakh.. The remaining 20 lakh families, not covered under any government insurance scheme, will get a cover of Rs 10 lakh.
The remodelled Mukh Mantri Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana will be applicable to all residents and even to retired government employees, who live in other states.
People seeking specialised treatment in hospitals outside Punjab will also be covered by this insurance, provided they seek treatment in hospitals empanelled under the Ayushman Bharat plan. The insurance scheme will be applicable for 1,950 odd health procedures. Between 2019 and 2024, Punjab had seen 19.87 lakh hospital admissions, resulting in an expenditure of Rs 2490.35 crore.
Punjab