Patna, May 20: Bihar would be the first state in the country to move a proposal in the cabinet that would ensure health coverage benefits for the existing as well as former government employees.

The health department’s ambitious proposal aims to help about 8 lakh present and retired government employees and their dependent family members. At present, the coverage is given only to present state government employees for hospitalisation charges.

The health coverage will be given for preventive check-ups and cashless hospitalisation at about 100 centres across the state.

“The health coverage will be given to 3.72 lakh present and 3.92 lakh retired employees of the state. Once it gets approved by the cabinet, we will take about four to six months to get the scheme on ground,” principal secretary (health) Amarjeet Sinha told The Telegraph.

According to sources, the decision to start such a scheme was taken following formation of an inter-departmental committee under the chairmanship of the health department principal secretary to implement recommendations of first National Judicial Pay Commission (Shetty Commission) to give health insurance benefits to retired judicial officials on the lines of present employees.

“During the course of study of best practices in various states and national employers like railways, we decided that why not extend the benefit to all state employees, present or retired. Therefore, we have made our own model in Bihar containing points from various states,” Sinha aadded.

The health insurance will enable employees to avail outpatient department treatment and cashless hospitalisation at around 100 specified hospitals across the state, most of which are government hospitals and medical colleges.

The employees will be provided smart cards and they would be able to avail free diagnoses. For Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans, they will have to pay according to rates fixed by the government.

Every employee will also be entitled for treatment worth Rs 2 lakh during hospitalisation, the approval for which will be granted at the secretariat level.

Under the scheme, all employees will also be given Rs 200 per month as health allowance. At present, only officer-level employees used to get Rs 200 as health allowance while for other employees, it was Rs 100 per month.