Fact-check: Is the newly-launched Balochistan health card still not operational?

Multiple social media posts on Facebook and the platform X allege that the caretaker government in Balochistan rolled out a health insurance program in November to provide free medical treatment to the poor, yet even after a month of the launch the service was still not operational.

The claim is false.

Claim

One user on X wrote that patients in Balochistan asking for coverage under the health card are being denied services at the hospitals.

“The government should listen to their [the patients] complaints,” the account posted on November 18.

A similar claim was shared on Facebook where a man alleges in a video message that the card was not active for the poor in the province.

Fact

The Balochistan Health Card Program, a healthcare insurance scheme launched by the caretaker government in Balochistan on November 3, is operational in 47 hospitals in the province, confirm officials and several public and private hospitals.

As per the list, available on the website of the State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan, the government-run company that provides the health coverage, there are 47 public and private hospitals in Balochistan where the card is active.

The hospitals are in Dera Bugti, Gwadar, Hub, Kech, Khuzdar, Killa Abdullah, Loralai, Mastung, Nasirabad, Panjgur, Quetta and Sibbi.

Asadullah Kakar, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the health program in the province, told Geo Fact Check over the phone that apart from the empaneled hospitals, another 40-50 hospitals are also in the process of being added to the list.

The card provides free medical treatment of Rs1 million per family per year.

Kakar’s statement was further corroborated by Noor Mohammad Qazi, the director general health in Balochistan, who also said that the card has been operational since November.

Geo Fact Check then also spoke to the staff at a government-run hospital, Sandeman Hospital, and four private hospitals in Quetta, namely the Christian Hospital, Saleem Medical Complex Hospital, Cenar Cancer Hospital and Akram Hospital.

The administration at all five hospitals confirmed that the card was operational for the residents of the province.

Geo Fact Check further reached out to Pak Oman Hospital, a private hospital in Pasni, Gwadar. The staff also said the health card was working.

However, Geo Fact Check could not independently verify if some patients have been denied coverage under the health card at the listed hospitals.

With additional reporting by Saman Amjad.

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