A stream of people from different districts thronged Fort St. George on Friday morning. They had not come there to present petitions to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi. Sporting smiling faces, they visited the Secretariat complex to thank him for having benefited from the Chief Minister Kalaignar Insurance Scheme for Life Saving Treatments.
Some months ago, the parents of six-year-old Sivabalan of Tiruppur and nine-year-old Rajesh of Arakkonam were despondent when they came to know that their children were afflicted with cancer. Very soon, not only did the parents feel relieved but the future too looked promising as they all were covered under the scheme.
Referring to Velu, a middle-aged man from Katpadi, who had been suffering from a heart problem, R. Ravikumar, Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, Robotic Surgery Centre in the Chettinad Health City at Kelambakkam near here, said the robotic-assisted mitral valve replacement surgery was carried out thanks to the coverage of the patient under the scheme. This would not have been possible otherwise, considering the patient's economic status.
P. Saravanan, founder-chairman of Saravana Hospitals of Madurai, explained how his institution treated Muniyandi (10) of Usilampatti, who was found to have four defects in the heart.
To mark the completion of a year of implementation of the scheme, the Chief Minister gave gifts to those beneficiaries who had resumed normal activity. He commended government and private hospitals, which provided treatment to the patients.
In the last one year, 1.44 crore families were enrolled under the scheme. About 1.53 lakh patients were provided treatment. A sum of Rs.415.43 crore had been given to hospitals through the insurance company. For implementing the scheme, the government would incur an annual expenditure of Rs.569.54 crore towards premium and Rs.58.66 crore towards service tax. As many as 656 government and private hospitals had been recognised for providing treatment, an official release added.
