Tamil Nadu Health Insurance: Govt To Launch Plans For Elderly. All You Need To Know
Health Insurance: The proposed plans are expected to strengthen health insurance coverage for senior citizens, helping reduce the financial burden of medical treatment and hospitalisation.
Health Insurance: Tamil Nadu is set to introduce new health insurance plans aimed at providing greater financial protection and healthcare access for elderly residents.
Health Insurance: Tamil Nadu will launch the “Chief Minister’s Elderly Health Insurance Scheme,” covering nearly 38 lakh senior citizens aged 70 and above, Health Minister KG Arunraj announced in the Assembly on Monday. The scheme will provide free medical treatment, including cancer care packages, advanced cardiac surgeries, organ transplants, and high-end diagnostic services, at empanelled government and private hospitals, with no ceiling on income.
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Health Insurance: Rs 2,997 Crore Health Department Outlay
The Minister made 115 announcements for the Health Department at a total estimated outlay of Rs 2,997 crore. These covered policy reforms, universal free health services, new posts creation, infrastructure projects, equipment and procurement, direct beneficiary programmes, and digital health initiatives.
Health Insurance: New Public Health Act And TN Medicity
The 87-year-old Tamil Nadu Public Health Act, 1939, will be replaced with a modern, comprehensive Act to address contemporary and future health challenges, Arunraj said. A new provision would make unsupervised home births outside hospitals a punishable offence. Noting that Tamil Nadu was known as the country’s health capital, he said that TN Medicity, a world-class integrated medical hub comprising clinical services, research, medical tourism, and AYUSH, would be established. The government will allocate Rs 10 crore for the preparation of a Detailed Project Report in the first phase.
Health Insurance: Free Annual Health Check-Ups For All
The “Nalam 360 – Annual Free Health Check-up for All” scheme will be rolled out. Under this, everyone aged 30 and above will receive 14 basic tests annually, free of cost, across 1,257 government health facilities in the State. This will include blood pressure, ECG, haemoglobin, complete haemogram, random blood sugar, urea, creatinine, total cholesterol, serum bilirubin, urine albumin, and VIA screening. For the first time in the State, the Health Department will introduce Home Based Diagnostic Services — sample collection and testing services — in metropolitan areas on a public-private partnership model, he said. The department will also come up with a “Positive Health Policy” to promote holistic health and wellbeing at the community, family, and individual levels.
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Health Insurance: New Nursing And Medical Staff Posts
Addressing a long-standing demand, Dr Arunraj said 2,500 permanent posts of staff nurses would be created. Existing contract nurses on consolidated pay will be absorbed into regular time-scale pay. A total of 1,695 nursing posts on consolidated pay will be created at a cost of Rs 42.72 crore.A total of 3,594 medical staff across 24 categories, including pharmacists, nursing assistants, village health nurses, and ophthalmic assistants, will be recruited through the Medical Services Recruitment Board.
Additionally, the department will create 284 temporary super-speciality posts across 25 specialities on time-scale pay to take advanced medical care to the district level. These posts will be created to accommodate doctors who complete their post-graduation every year and are posted in government hospitals on bond conditions.
Health Insurance: Infrastructure And Digital Health Initiatives
Among the other announcements, a Master Plan for Health Infrastructure will be prepared in a phased manner at an estimated cost of Rs 10 crore, to develop modern health infrastructure across all government medical college hospitals and district headquarters hospitals. A care coordination scheme will be rolled out, and the AI-powered WhatsApp chatbot for booking medical appointments will be expanded to all government hospitals, along with AI-technology and QR-based patient feedback systems.
Health Insurance: Other Key Announcements
AYUSH fertility treatment centres will be established at a cost of Rs 1.03 crore, while a Level-1 assisted reproductive centre will be set up in 31 government medical college hospitals and six district headquarters hospitals at a cost of Rs 14 crore. A unique patient identification system will be developed to assign a single digital health ID to every patient across all government health facilities. Neurosurgery hubs will be established, and heat stroke management units will be set up in 20 district headquarters hospitals. New geriatric medical units will come up in four government hospitals, and palliative care centres in two hospitals for senior citizens. Basic life support training will also be provided for the public.
