Goa to have universal health insurance scheme soon: CM

After several hits and misses, the Goa government will launch its universal health insurance scheme, the first of its kind in the country in a few months, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said on Wednesday.

He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a government event at the state secretariat.

"We had issued a public tender twice. We have received fresh suggestions which have been incorporated and a reworked tender will be issued soon. We hope to get the scheme started in a few months," Parsekar said.

The universal health insurance scheme was launched by the erstwhile Congress-led coalition government in Goa in 2011, that provided a cover of Rs.60,000 for a family of five every year in return for an extremely minimal registration amount.

However, allegations of corruption levelled against the then health minister Vishwajeet Rane by the opposition for under-valuing the insurance cover, selectively choosing hospitals as partners and inability of the insurers to get through to the masses to register had resulted in the scheme failing to take off.