Fact-check: Has the health card been suspended in Punjab?

Viral social media posts claim that the caretaker government in Punjab has suspended the health insurance program, a flagship project of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government, launched in Punjab in 2021 to provide free medical treatment to the underprivileged.

The claim is misleading.

Claim

“The PML-N government has deprived Punjab’s 120 million people of the health insurance card facility,” a user claimed on platform X, formerly known as Twitter, on October 26.

This post has been viewed over 19,000 times, reposted 803 times and liked nearly 1,800 times, to date.

Identical claims were posted here, here and here.

Fact

The universal health insurance program, known as the Sehat Sahulat Card, has not been suspended in Punjab, confirmed officials and eight hospitals in the province.

But the caretaker government did introduce a new policy regarding the health card in November. Now, medical treatments, covered by the card, will only be free at public hospitals, while at private hospitals, patients will have to pay 40% of the expenses incurred.

Earlier, the card had provided free treatment at both private and public hospitals.

Dr Javed Akram, the caretaker provincial health minister, told Geo Fact Check over the phone that the health insurance scheme is still operational across Punjab at the enlisted government and private hospitals.

Though patients who visit private hospitals will have to pay 40% of their medical expenses, he added, while the remaining 60% will be paid by the government.

In public hospitals, medical treatment is still free, he told Geo Fact Check.

“The reason for this decision is that we want people to use government hospital facilities more,” Akram explained over the phone, “But obviously if people still want to use private hospitals they can, only they will have to pay a little now, which is what we call a co-payment system.”

The health cards provide universal coverage of Rs1 million a year per family.

Akram went on that the Punjab interim government has further decided that from January 1, 2024, the health insurance program will only be available to patients visiting hospitals that have been approved by the Punjab Healthcare Commission.

“We have given hospitals till December 31, to get themselves registered with the Commission,” he added.

Separately, Dr Noor Ul Haq, the regional chief of the government-run State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan, the company that provides health coverage, rubbished claims of the service being halted.

Furthermore, a letter was shared with Geo Fact Check by State Life Insurance, dated November 14. In which the company informed all private hospitals in the province that due to the “financial sustainability” of the Sehat Sahulat Program, the empanelled private hospitals must implement a co-payment system of 40% from November 15.

Geo Fact Check also contacted three public hospitals in Lahore — Services Hospital, General Hospital and Shaikh Zayed Hospital. Staff at the hospitals confirmed the card was indeed working.

Geo Fact Check then spoke to the hospital staff at four private hospitals - Doctors Hospital, Hameed Latif Hospital, Sharif Medical & Dental College, Evercare Hospital in Lahore and the Sarwar Foundation Rai Ali Nawaz Hospital in Sahiwal. They too said that the card was operational, but now patients were required to meet 40% of their expenses on their own.

Here is the list of empanelled hospitals where the Sehat card can be used:

With additional reporting by Nadia Khalid.

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