Following the suggestions of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS), the Centre government has made announcement about the formulation of the cashless health insurance scheme for poor sections of the country.

The newly launched scheme would cover up the 300-million destitute across India.

Mr. P Chidambaram, Union Finance Minister declared the insurance scheme in the budget for the recent fiscal on February 28, 2008.
 
In a report, a high-level group of the Planning Commission has stated that the insurance scheme would cover the entire BPL population of 30 crore within a time period of five years.

It has been estimated that Rs 750 will be paid as a premium amount to all the families. The Central and State government would jointly borne the total premium in the ratio of 75:25.

In order to avail benefit of this health scheme, all BPL cardholders would have to get registered themselves with the scheme, and they would have to pay Rs 30 annually as registration or renewal fees.

The Smart Card will allow card holders to get medical facility in private as well as government hospitals.

The state governments will decide that what type of benefits will be offered to the beneficiaries.

However, the plan is that the hospitalisation expenses will take care of the majority of common illnesses, all preexisting maladies and transportation costs within an overall limit of Rs 1,000 will be covered.

The selection of the health insurance provider will be done by the state or implementing agency through a tendering process, the group said recommending that the health insurance scheme for the BPL categories be implemented at the earliest.