The Government (Department of Financial Services) is considering a convenient and affordable health insurance scheme for senior citizens aged 60 years and above for secondary and tertiary treatment cover of Rupees One Lakh per annum. The scheme would involve annual cover, renewable from year to year. Treatment would be cashless. The new product would be linked to the Bank account on the lines of PMJJBY and PMSBY.
While senior citizens would subscribe individually, the premium paid by senior citizens in the BPL category could be subsidized by Government to an extent of say 90% or more through transfer to their bank accounts. It is thus envisaged that while the scheme would be based on individual subscription, a large pool covering almost all of the estimated 2.7 Crore BPL senior citizens aged over 60 years would form, along with additional membership of a very large number of the non-BPL senior citizens who would subscribe. This large group feature it is envisaged would enable affordability through the very reasonable premiums. IT based innovations to reduce costs are also envisaged. The cover for the BPL senior citizens would be over and above the cover they may receive through RSBY, which is currently to the tune of Rs. 30000 per annum on a family floater basis.
A variant of the envisaged scheme that could be considered is a scheme involving such cover of Rs. One Lakh per annum on family floater basis for the family of which the senior citizens are a part and being taken care of by.