Medisep scheme in casualty: Phase two will not start on January 1

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The second phase of Medisep, the health insurance scheme for government employees, teachers and pensioners, will not start from January 1. The reason is technical difficulties.

The steps to sign agreements with more specialist hospitals and bring back hospitals that withdrew from the scheme have not been completed. The moves to withdraw the GST on Medisep premium have also not been completed. It is hoped that all this will be sorted out and the second phase will start from February 1. The first phase of the current Medisep has been extended until then. The same Oriental Insurance Company that was running Medisep has taken over the contract for the second phase as well. It was earlier announced that the next phase of Medisep, which ended in July last year, would start by January 1.

GST exemption not obtained

The central government has given GST exemption to premiums and personal medical insurance provided by the central and state governments. The state has not been able to provide this exemption to Medisep. The state has started trying to get GST exemption in the face of protests against this, including from the ruling party service organisations. The premium to be collected from pensioners and employees for the second phase of Medisep is Rs 8,327. When 18% GST is included, it will be Rs 9,719, i.e. Rs 810 per month. If GST is excluded, it will be Rs 700. The final decision will be taken by the State GST Advance Ruling Authority.

Attempt to change the refusal

Although the MediSep coverage has been increased to Rs 5 lakh and it has been decided to include more government employees in the scheme, specialist hospitals and large private hospitals are refusing to cooperate in the scheme. With this, the employees are arguing that they should have the option to join MediSep or not. The move is to sign MediSep agreements with as many hospitals as possible in this situation. The start of the second phase was postponed to get additional time for this.