Health Department Announces Medicare Policy for Tibetans in Exile

Under the leadership of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the efforts of the staff members both at the Local level and the Central level, Department of Health, Central Tibetan Administration has been able to achieve a modest success in terms of laying a good foundation for the Tibetan community in exile to avail themselves of necessary primary healthcare facilities. Even as today, the primary healthcare needs are well taken care of by DoH-run healthcare units, for secondary and tertiary treatments, the patients are referred to outside healthcare providers. For those who can not bear the expenses of such treatments, DoH has been making partial reimbursements on their expenses on case by case basis. However, this practice of making reimbursements not only amounts to a significant burden on the CTA’s exchequer but also does not fully benefit the larger section of the Tibetan community. Hence, as per the objectives of Tibetan Voluntary Health Association (TVHA) - the registered society under which the DoH carries out its activities, and with the approval from Kashag, Tibetan Medicare System Programme is being launched to cover the secondary and tertiary healthcare costs of the members of the Tibetan community in exile.

As per the directives from the Kashag, TMS Programme plans to introduce a self-financing scheme built upon public-private-partnership model to cover the secondary and tertiary healthcare costs of its members. Training, awareness-creation, enrollment processes and other programme-related activities will commence from April 4, 2011 and the registered members will be eligible to avail the benefits of the scheme from October 1, 2011. Although the membership is voluntary in nature, DoH, CTA will not entertain any applications for reimbursements for medical expenses from non-members from October 1, 2011.

As per the proposed TMS scheme, households with up to 5 members can avail a maximum collective benefit of up to Rs. 1 Lakh on hospitalization costs in a year for the annual household contribution of only Rs. 3565. Details of the scheme will be made available to the general public shortly.

Issued by:

Department of Health

Central Tibetan Administration

Dharamsala