New Delhi: With Modi government planning to expand Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) scheme to cover 10 crore workers across the country by 2022, the Union labor ministry has decided to open one super specialty hospital in each state under healthcare facilities run by the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).
“ESIC has taken a decision to set up one super specialty hospital in each state,” labour minister Santosh Gangwar said in a written reply in Lok Sabha. The ESIC Vision talks of expansion of ESI Scheme in each district of the country by 2022 to ensure healthcare facility for 10 crore workers.
At present, ESIC is running two super specialty hospitals at Sanath Nagar, Telangana and Asramam, Kollam, in Kerala.
The ESIC is providing comprehensive social security benefits like reasonable medical care and a range of cash benefits in times of need such as injury, sickness and death of a worker.
At present, the ESIC covers around three crore formal sector employees in the country, with total beneficiaries of over 12 crore under its health insurance scheme.
Formed under the ESI Act, ESIC applies to premises with 10 or more number of employees. The employees with wages up to Rs 21,000 per month are entitled to health insurance cover and other benefits under the act. It covers over 8.98 lakh factories and establishments across the country that benefit about 3.19 crore family units.
ESIC has over 12.40 crore beneficiaries. It has 151 hospitals and about 1,489 dispensaries.
At present, ESIC also has 13 medical colleges in seven states–West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, New Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.
In December 2014, the government had said that ESIC was exploring possibilities to hand over its medical college projects to respective state governments as medical education is not the core function of the corporation.
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