Government hospitals got only a negligible percentage of the total medical claims settled under the previous regime's health insurance scheme for advanced treatments while private hospitals cornered almost the entire amount of Rs.850 crore, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said in the Assembly on Friday.
“Out of the Rs.850 crore paid out under the health insurance scheme, only Rs.10.49 crore went to government hospitals, which comes to about 1.2 per cent. The scheme was largely beneficial only to private sector hospitals and that is why this regime has decided to scrap it,” Ms. Jayalalithaa said in the course of her reply to the debate on the Governor's address.
Shortcomings
Listing the shortcomings in the insurance scheme, she said the four-year family cover under it had a limit of Rs.1 lakh. If one member of the family availed it, others got no benefit for a long time. The amount was inadequate for some life-saving surgeries and there was no provision for reimbursement of charges incurred in diagnostic investigations.
The poor had to borrow money for scans and tests and post-operative care was not covered by the scheme.
“Some private hospitals collected money from patients while some made them pay for certain charges not covered by the scheme.”
Denying any personal or political motive behind shifting the Secretariat and Assembly back to Fort St George, the Chief Minister said that the previous government did not take into account the administrative inconvenience involved in having just six departments in the new complex at Omandurar Government Estate and the remaining at Fort St George. “Can the government function from two different locations that are two kilometres apart?”
Block A of the new building was initially estimated to cost Rs.200 crore, but the estimates had shot up to Rs.600 crore. Out of the total plinth area of 97,829 square metres, only 47,491 square metres (or 49 per cent) had been utilised for offices. “In short, after spending Rs.624 crore, half the space is lying unutilised and people's money has been wasted to that extent.”
“The DMK need not worry about wastage of public money spent on Block A by its not being utilised. It will be put to use in a suitable manner,” Ms. Jayalalithaa said.
Samacheer Kalvi
The ‘uniform system of education' introduced by the previous regime lacked equity or uniformity and showed no concern for educational standards and confined itself to a new syllabus. This was why the present government had put it on hold, she said.
The committee to be appointed by the government would devise ways of implementing ‘Samacheer Kalvi' in a manner that would give students a bright future and impart quality education to all.
