Universal Health Insurance Scheme
	15:40 IST

Government has re-designed the earlier Universal Health Insurance Scheme, restricting it to BPL families only with increased subsidy. Against a uniform premium subsidy of Rs.100/- per family for BPL families in 2003-04, a graded subsidy of Rs.200/- for an individual, Rs.300/- for a family of five and Rs.400/- for a family of seven has been introduced without any reduction in the benefits. With the increase in subsidy, the premium payable is Rs.165/- for an individual, Rs.248/- for a family of five and Rs.330/- for a family of seven members. A provision of Rs.5 crore was made for the year 2004-05. 96,275 persons involving 34,069 BPL families have been covered under the scheme upto 31st January, 2005. This information was given by Shri S. S. Palanimanickam, Minister of State for Finance, in reply to a question by Smt. Sushma Swaraj in Rajya Sabha today. BSC/BY/CS-149/05