Aizawl, Jun 7 (PTI) Over 40,500 families in Mizoram are availing health insurance under a state healthcare scheme, an official said.

The Mizoram State Health Care Scheme (MSHCS) was launched by the Mizo National Front (MNF) government headed by Chief Minister Zoramthanga on October 1, 2019.

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Under this scheme, beneficiaries are provided health insurance of up to Rs 2 lakh per year.

Dr Biakthansangi, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Mizoram state health care society, told PTI that till April, a total of 40,561 families, including 6,355 BPL families, had registered themselves to avail health assistance under the MSHCS.

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The state government had extended the deadline for registration at least nine times and closed the process in May, she said.

The present scheme is valid for one year up to September this year after which it will be renewed.

According to Dr Biakthansangi, more than Rs 18.22 crore has been released to over 6,700 beneficiaries as health assistance from October, 2019 to May this year.

Over Rs 1 crore is yet to be released to about 392 beneficiaries next week, she said.

The state government has allocated Rs 20 crore each for the fiscal 2019-20 and 2020-21 under the states flagship programme-Socio-Economic Development Policy (SEDP) for the implementation of the healthcare scheme, she said.

Beside assistance under the healthcare scheme, the government also released more than Rs 13.73 crore to 3,459 government employees during the lockdown period from March to May as medical reimbursement against over Rs 11.81 crore for the corresponding period in 2019.

Of the 3,459 beneficiaries, 418 were undergoing treatment outside the state, she said.

Both the state healthcare scheme and medical reimbursement for employees were implemented smoothly despite the austerity measures undertaken by the state government to fight COVID-19 crisis, the official said. People of this northeastern state can avail of two government healthcare schemes.

One is the Centres Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) scheme, which currently provides a cover of up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year, for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation while the state government's MSHCS is the second one. Both the schemes came into effect from October 1, 2019.

The MSHCS covers those BPL and APL families not covered under the AB-PMJAY and family members of government servants who are not entitled to medical assistance.

The AB-PMJAY and MSHCS schemes are being implemented in all government hospitals and private hospitals across the state.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)