Patients pay price for policy paralysis

When the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh decided to halt the HimCare cashless medical treatment scheme, hundreds of poor and critically ill patients were left stranded. For many, HimCare was a lifeline, offering free treatment at private hospitals when government facilities were overcrowded or ill-equipped. Today, that lifeline lies severed.

The Sukhu government, which came to power promising to revive HimCare with reforms, has allowed a year to pass without action. Instead of restoration, the scheme has been completely discontinued in private hospitals, even for patients battling kidney ailments, cancer and other life-threatening conditions who were earlier granted exceptions.

The state government defends its move, citing “financial irregularities” detected by the Health Department. But this justification hardly brings relief to patients gasping for survival. Scrapping an entire welfare scheme due to administrative lapses amounts to punishing the poor for the system’s inefficiency. To make matters worse, the government has yet to clear pending dues of nearly Rs 300 crore to private hospitals, pushing them to withdraw services completely.

Launched in 2019 by the then BJP government under Jai Ram Thakur, HimCare was designed to bridge the gap left by Ayushman Bharat, providing cashless treatment of up to Rs 5 lakh annually, especially for families excluded from central coverage. The inclusion of private hospitals made the scheme functional and accessible.

Today, the reality is grim. While HimCare is technically available in government hospitals, these facilities are bursting at the seams. Patients stand in queues for hours for basic check-ups. CT scans, MRIs and even routine surgeries have months-long waiting lists. Many die waiting for procedures that private hospitals could have handled swiftly under Him Care.

Critical patients from institutions like Tanda Medical College are now being referred to Chandigarh, Ludhiana or Jalandhar for advanced care — where costs range from Rs 2 to Rs 4 lakh. For daily wage earners and marginal farmers, that is an impossible burden.

Several patients told The Tribune they don’t oppose reforms in HimCare, only its abrupt suspension. “If there were loopholes, the government should have fixed them, not shut the door on us,” said one patient’s family member.

A high-level committee was formed by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu a year ago to review the scheme. Its report remains under wraps. Meanwhile, Himachal’s most vulnerable continue to pay with their lives.