Karnataka Cabinet approves Sandhya Kiran cashless healthcare scheme for pensioners

The Karnataka Cabinet approved the ‘Sandhya Kiran’ cashless healthcare scheme for state pensioners below 70, family pensioners and eligible dependents. Initially covering 4.93 lakh beneficiaries, the scheme provides annual cashless treatment up to Rs 5 lakh at empanelled hospitals

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Cabinet on Thursday approved the ‘Sandhya Kiran’ cashless healthcare scheme for state pensioners below 70 years, family pensioners and their eligible dependents. The scheme aims to provide financial and health security to retired employees and their families and will initially cover about 4.93 lakh beneficiaries, including 3.11 lakh State Government pensioners below 70 years and their eligible dependents.

“This scheme is a vital social security measure ensuring quality, affordable and cashless healthcare services for State Government pensioners and their families, helping significantly reduce the financial burden of unexpected medical expenses,” the CMO said in a press release issued after the Cabinet meeting.

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Formulated under the Ayushman Bharat-Arogya Karnataka regulations, the scheme will provide eligible families cashless treatment of up to Rs 5 lakh a year on a floater basis for secondary, tertiary and emergency care at empanelled hospitals.

The benefit packages and revised rates under AB-ArK will also apply to ‘Sandhya Kiran’. Service pensioners will contribute 1.25 per cent of their basic pension, while family pensioners will contribute 0.75 per cent of their basic family pension.

The scheme is expected to generate about Rs 117 crore annually in contributions, against an estimated annual treatment cost of Rs 81.75 crore. Of the treatment cost, 70 per cent will be met from beneficiaries’ contributions and 30 per cent by the state government, amounting to about Rs 57.22 crore and Rs 24.53 crore, respectively.

To maintain the scheme’s financial stability, the government has proposed automatically increasing the contribution rate by 0.05 percentage points (five basis points) whenever corpus utilisation exceeds 85 per cent.

The Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust will implement the scheme. Beneficiary registration, contribution collection, hospital-network administration, cashless treatment, claims management and overall oversight will be handled through the AB-ArK system.