Karnataka Cabinet Approves Sandhya Kiran Cashless Healthcare Scheme for Pensioners

Key facts

• The Karnataka Cabinet approved the Sandhya Kiran scheme, a contributory cashless healthcare scheme for state government pensioners below 70 years, family pensioners and eligible dependants.
• The scheme is framed under the Ayushman Bharat-Arogya Karnataka (AB-ArK) framework and will initially cover about 3.11 lakh pensioners, with total beneficiaries around 4.93 lakh.
• Eligible families will receive cashless secondary, tertiary and emergency treatment up to ₹5 lakh per year on a floater basis at empanelled hospitals.
• Service pensioners will contribute 1.25% of their basic pension, while family pensioners contribute 0.75% of their basic family pension.
• The scheme is expected to collect around ₹117 crore in annual premiums against estimated treatment costs of ₹81.75 crore.
• Under the AB-ArK funding model, 70% of treatment costs will be met from beneficiary share and 30% by the state, translating to annual contributions of ₹57.22 crore and ₹24.53 crore respectively.
• The scheme includes an automatic premium rate increase of 0.05 percentage point if corpus utilisation exceeds 85%.
• The scheme will be implemented through the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST) and integrated with the AB-ArK system.