Date:10/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/10/stories/2008111058560200.htm

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

“Sort out difficulties in health scheme”

Staff Reporter

MADURAI: The Madurai district unit of the Tamil Nadu Government Employees’ Association has called for the State Government’s intervention in sorting out difficulties in implementing the health insurance scheme.

In a press release, the association said that Government employees faced many practical difficulties in the health scheme.

The government-sponsored new Health Insurance Scheme is being implemented by a consortium of health insurance companies. It came into force in June this year.

The association said that according to the guidelines issued, government employees do not have to pay any charges, including for food, to the enlisted hospitals.

However, in certain instances in Madurai and southern districts, government employees, after getting admitted to the hospitals, were being asked by representatives of the insurance provider to bear a portion of the payment, the association alleged.

In some other instances, the association claimed, the insurance companies did not respond at all after being intimated that the employee had been admitted to the hospital.

The association called for the State Government’s intervention to sort out these problems, the press release said.