As many as 1,800 families belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes living in Udupi city will be brought under the Chief Minister's Health Insurance Scheme (CMHIS) by the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) on August 15.
K. Raghupati Bhat, MLA, told presspersons here on Tuesday that of the 1,800 families, 822 belonged to Scheduled Castes and the rest to Scheduled Tribes. Of the 978 Scheduled Tribe families, 300 families belonged to the Koraga community.
The Udupi CMC was the first urban local body in the State to take up such a health insurance scheme for SC and ST families.
Each member of these 1,800 families could claim medical expenses of up to Rs. 30,000, he said.
The National Insurance Company would bear the medical expenses. The Udupi CMC would be paying premium of Rs. 25 lakh annually. A family here means seven members. The beneficiaries can receive treatment in six hospitals in the city — Kasturba Hospital, Dr. T.M.A. Pai Hospital, Adarsh Hospital, Gandhi Hospital, Hi-tech Hospital and Dr. A.V. Baliga Hospital. An additional benefit of this scheme was that that if the head of a family dies, the family would get a compensation of Rs. 1 lakh, Mr. Bhat said.
President of the Udupi CMC Dinakar Shetty, vice-president Indira Shekhar and CMC Commissioner Gokuldas Nayak were among those present.
