Budget 2012: Health Insurance for Unorganized Sector Gets 45 Percent Hike

The government's flagship health insurance scheme, the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) for workers in the unorganized sector got a 45 per cent increase in Budget 2012.

The PMO had in the recent past, extended the scheme to �uncovered' categories of workers of the unorganized sector.

The smart card-based cashless health insurance scheme, which was launched in 2007, was allocated Rs 752 crore in the last budget. This time, Rs 1,096 crore has been allocated to it.

The health insurance scheme for Below Poverty Level (BPL) families has already been extended to cover building and other construction workers, NREGA beneficiaries, street vendors, beedi workers and domestic workers.

The Labour Ministry will now seek the Cabinet's nod for extending the plan to sanitation workers, ragpickers, mine- workers, rickshaw-pullers, auto rickshaw drivers and taxi drivers.

An autonomous institutional structure to ensure smooth implementation of the scheme is also being planned.



Source: Medindia