Sehat Sahulat Plan at every nook and corner of Pakistan

The Analysis of Economic Survey of Pakistan FY2019 revealed that Prime Minister’s National Health Program (PMNHP) is a milestone towards reaching the goal of acquiring Universal Health Coverage by presently launched healthcare financing system ensuring access to medical health care in a swift and dignified manner without any financial obligations. Government of Pakistan is all set to enlarge PMNHP till 2022, to offer social health protection against most of chronic and debilitating diseases/health situations to all families living below the poverty line of US$2 per day. Presently sources recorded that the federal government has renamed PMNHP as Sehat Sahulat Program. The ‘Health Card’ has also been renamed Sehat Insaf Card. It is also said that the Ministry of National Health Services and the State Life Insurance Corporation inked a contract in a ceremony for implementation of the Sehat Sahulat Program. This Program is being implemented by State Life Insurance, hired by an open and transparent bidding process. Services are delivered to the beneficiaries by empaneling secondary and tertiary level health care facilities, both at private and public sector, in all focused districts and metropolitan cities of Pakistan. The hospital is being empanelled through the insurance company based on hospital empanelment criteria set forth in the program documents.

It is also important to record here that the major function of the State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan is to carry out Life Insurance Business; however, it is also involved in the other related business activities such as investment of policyholders fund in Government Securities, Stock Market, Real Estate etc. State Life has played very vital role in the economy by providing employment to the people of the country as permanent employees and as part of its marketing force and by investing the huge funds in different sectors of the economy. No doubt, State Life is smoothly striving towards its aim of making life insurance available to large section of the society through enlarging it to common man.

As per the analysis the cumulative health expenditures by federal and provincial governments during 2018-19 (July-March) grew to Rs 203.74 billion which was recorded 3.29 percent higher than same period of last year, which was registered at Rs 197.25 billion. Statistics showed that the current expenditure grew by 19.84 percent from Rs 149.97 billion to Rs. 179.72 billion while of development expenditure declined by 49.19 percent from Rs 47.28 billion to Rs 24.03 billion. Furthermore, the break-up of expenditures among federal and provinces demonstrate that during July-March FY2019, federal and Punjab health expenditures declined by 10.0 and 8.2 percent, respectively, over corresponding period last year. On the other hand, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health expenditures grew by 22.2, 18.4 and 10.5 percent, respectively. As percentage of GDP health expenditure in the country has enhanced from 0.91 percent in 2016-17 to 0.97 percent in 2017-18 and during FY 2018-19 (July-March) it grew by 0.53 percent as against to 0.49 percent during the same period last year.

Sources recorded that the Sehat Sahulat Program has been enlarged to every nook and corner of Pakistan. Statistics also registered that almost 15 million families have been added to the program. Approximately 90 million people will be benefited from the Sehat Insaf Card. The package of this card has been enhanced to Rs. 720,000. The PMNHP was launched through the government on Dec 31, 2015, for Islamabad and called it as the first step to make Pakistan a welfare state. The Program has started from January 1, 2018, and would be completed by December 31, 2022. The project with a total cost of almost Rs. 8 billion, is already under implementation in 36 districts in Pakistan. On the other hand the analysis also showed that the Government of Punjab envisaged benefiting 30 million people and 3.7 million families from launch of health insurance scheme the Sehat Sahulat Card. The launched of these cards in January 2019, envisaged distributing the cards among 50 percent population of the province in its initial phase. Statistics showed that 7.2 million Sehat Sahulat cards will be provided to 35 million individuals of Punjab. On the other hand the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has enhanced the health insurance scheme Sehat Sahulat cards through increasing service delivery of health insurance scheme to 2.4 million households with provision of free treatment to 70 percent of the population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government granted empanelment to 106 public and private hospitals by health insurance scheme and about Rs. 2.64 billion spent so far for free treatment through this scheme.

Regional Countries Human Development Indicator
Country	Life expectancy at birth, total (years)			Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births)			Maternal Mortality Rate (Per 100,000)			Under 5 Mortality Rate (Per 1,000)			Population growth (annual %)
Country Name	2015	2016	2017	2015	2016	2017	2013	2014	2015	2015	2016	2017	2015	2016	2017
Pakistan	66.3	66.5	66.6	64.6	62.9	61.2	190.0	184.0	178.0	79.5	77.1	74.1	2.0	2.0	2.0
India	68.3	68.6	68.8	35.3	33.6	32.0	189.0	181.0	174.0	44.1	41.6	39.4	1.2	1.1	1.1
Bangladesh	72.2	72.5	72.8	29.8	28.3	26.9	201.0	188.0	176.0	36.4	34.3	32.4	1.1	1.1	1.0
Sri Lanka	75.1	75.3	75.5	8.2	7.8	7.5	32.0	31.0	30.0	9.5	9.1	8.8	0.9	1.1	1.1
Nepal	69.9	70.3	70.6	29.9	28.8	27.8	291.0	275.0	258.0	36.6	35.0	33.7	1.2	1.1	1.1
Bhutan	69.8	70.2	70.6	27.6	26.5	25.6	166.0	156.0	148.0	33.4	32.0	30.8	1.4	1.3	1.2
China	76.1	76.3	76.4	9.2	8.6	8.0	29.0	28.0	27.0	10.8	10.0	9.3	0.5	0.5	0.6
Indonesia	69.0	69.2	69.4	22.9	22.2	21.4	140.0	133.0	126.0	27.2	26.3	25.4	1.2	1.1	1.1
Malaysia	75.1	75.3	75.5	6.5	6.6	6.7	43.0	41.0	40.0	7.6	7.7	7.9	1.6	1.5	1.4
Philippines	69.0	69.1	69.2	23.0	22.7	22.2	121.0	117.0	114.0	29.1	28.6	28.1	1.6	1.6	1.5
Thailand	75.1	75.3	75.5	9.0	8.5	8.2	21.0	21.0	20.0	10.4	10.0	9.5	0.4	0.3	0.3