Fact-check: Sehat Card suspended in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since April
The government’s universal healthcare insurance scheme, known as the Sehat Sahulat Program, has been halted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since April 20.
Updated Monday Oct 16 2023
Online posts allege that the government’s health insurance program has been suspended in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province due to the non-release of funds. The story has accumulated hundreds of interactions on Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter.
The claim is true.
Claim
A post written on the microblogging site, X, on October 9, claims that due to lack of payments to hospitals the health cards, a government insurance program that provides free medical treatment to the underprivileged sectors, will be suspended in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The post goes on to claim that the insurance company has demanded Rs10 billion as arrears exceed Rs30 billion.
The post has been viewed nearly 300 times.
Similar claims took off on Facebook as well. One post on the platform even shared a letter purportedly from the government-run insurance company, State Life.
The letter stated that all hospitals are “advised to stop taking new admission under the Sehat Card Plus Program, KP, w.e.f. April 20, 2023, till further directions.”
The post has been shared over 600 times.
Fact
The government’s universal healthcare insurance scheme, known as the Sehat Sahulat Program, has indeed been stopped in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since April 20 due to the provincial government not releasing funds to the insurance company, government officials confirm.
A senior official at the State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan in Karachi, told Geo Fact Check over the phone on October 12, that the claims are correct.
“The government has been holding funds,” the employee said, adding that the program has only been halted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa so far.
Geo Fact Check then contacted two private hospitals, Rehmania Hospital in Dera Ismail Khan and Rehman Medical Institute in Peshawar. Doctors at both hospitals confirmed that the Sehat Sahulat Cards have been halted since the last six months.
Meanwhile, Dr Muhammad Riaz Tanoli, the chief executive officer of the social health protection initiative at the health department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said that the caretaker chief minister of the province held a meeting with the insurance company last month where it was decided that payments will be released to the company on the 17th of each month.
He added that on October 17 the company will be paid Rs3 billion, after which he hoped there will be no further interruption in the services.
With additional reporting by Fayyaz Hussain.
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