Reviewing the Sehat Sahulat Program

Abstract

The former government of Pakistan began a program which offered health insurance to those strata of society who otherwise could not afford the costly health facilities offered in Pakistan. The Sehat Sahulat Card was meant to target around 40 million people or 11 percent of the country's population. The program was begun by KP in 2015 and eventually was expanded to include Sindh, Baluchistan, Gilgit Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and the Federal Capital. The program boasted free-of-cost hospitalizations, surgical procedures, maternity services, cardiac issues and procedures etc. but during the early and even the later days of the program, a wide variety of complaints were raised by patients nationwide. Out-patient services, medical tests and medications were not covered. Private hospitals were said to have benefitted more from this program as opposed to public hospitals. The lack of quality control, monitoring and transparency leads to malpractices and corruption in the health sector. Hospitals were found to send bills for the procedure which were in fact not done to insurance companies. In conclusion, this is an ambitious venture which if treated with transparency and monitored closely holds the potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry in Pakistan but there is a huge room for improvement.