Bengaluru: While the Govt seeks to enhance its cashless health schemes, Vajpayee Arogyashree (BPL families), Rajiv Arogya Bhagya (APL families) and Jyothi Sanjeevini (Karnataka government employees), are facing an obstacle in the form of exorbitant charges from corporate hospitals. Officials of the health department, have said that the hospitals were charging Rs 7,000 for treating dengue patients when the cost should be Rs 1,200 to Rs 2,000 even at an optimal profit. “The government is prepared to pay the difference, but corporate hospitals continue to charge exorbitant amounts”. 
Now, renowned cardiac surgeon and founder of the the cheapest health insurance scheme, Yeshasvini, 12 years ago in Karnataka, has come with a unique suggestion, that can extend health care to Millions of Indians. He says, “Pay Rs 20 extra in your mobile phone bill every month and build a corpus fund for a healthcare scheme. There are 900 million cellphone users in the country who, on an average, spend Rs 150 per month for usage. If each subscriber agrees to pay even Rs 20 per month, it will be a big-ticket contribution”, he pointed out.
Explaining how the scheme could be viable, he said with 100 subscribers, 93% will not avail the scheme as the need may not arise. The 7% will benefit, though. Shetty has already made a presentation to health and family welfare minister UT Khader and the scheme will have to be implemented in conjunction with the service providers.
Health department officials, however, do not seem enthused about this. Though they felt the idea is good, according to them, the government’s focus is on ‘assurances’ rather than ‘insurance.’
