PMC’s fund for health insurance of urban poor gets over in 9 months

🔴 Civic body seeks additional funds to meet the extra expenditure of pandemic months

As Covid-19 cases rise in Pune, Anna Saheb Magar Hospital in Hadapsar has been converted to a dedicated Covid hospital with a 50-bed facility. (Express photo by Arul Horizon)

THE ONGOING pandemic has impacted the financial planning of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) as the Rs 45 crore funds of the civic body meant for health cover of urban poor are over within nine months of the current financial year, forcing the civic administration to seek additional funds to meet the expenditure for the hospitalised urban poor.

The PMC has been implementing the urban poor health insurance scheme for the past few years. As per the health insurance scheme for the urban poor, the PMC enrols slum dwellers with an annual income of maximum Rs one lakh by charging them an annual fee of Rs 200 per family. The civic body pays the medical bill for their treatment for serious ailment in private hospitals empanelled with the PMC. There are over 10,000 registered families benefitting under the scheme. In 2020-21, the PMC had made a budgetary provision of Rs 42 crore for meeting the expenditure of health insurance scheme for urban poor and the entire allocation was exhausted. So, an additional Rs 11.99 crore were spent on paying bills for treatment of Covid-19 patients.

In 2021-22, the PMC increased the budgetary provision to Rs 45 crore for health insurance scheme for urban poor and it had to incur an expenditure of Rs 44.63 crore by December 21. It has left the civic health department face difficulty in implementing the scheme for other beneficiaries. “The PMC has decided to sanction an additional Rs 2.94 crore to meet the estimated expenditure on health insurance scheme for urban poor in the next three months,” said Hemant Rasane, chairperson of standing committee.

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Earlier in the financial year, the PMC had decided to increase health insurance limit from Rs one lakh to Rs 3 lakh for urban poor for treatment of patients suffering due to Mucormycosis.

A month ago, the PMC had to provide Rs 1.5 crore additional funds to meet the medical expenditure of corporators as Rs 2.7 crore of budgetary provision got over in the first eight months of the financial year.

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Ajay Jadhav

Ajay Jadhav is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, Pune. He writes on Infrastructure, Politics, Civic issues, Sustainable Development and related stuff. He is a trekker and a sports enthusiast. Ajay has written research articles on the Conservancy staff that created a nationwide impact in framing policy to improve the condition of workers handling waste. Ajay has been consistently writing on politics and infrastructure. He brought to light the lack of basic infrastructure of school and hospital in the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde even as two private helipads were developed by the leader who mostly commutes from Mumbai to Satara in helicopter. Ajay has been reporting on sustainable development initiatives that protects the environment while ensuring infrastructure development. ... Read More

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