Prime Minister Imran Khan has launched a universal healthcare plan.

The Naya Pakistan Qaumi Sehat Card plan would cost the government Rs450 billion.

Prime Minister Imran Khan introduced the Naya Pakistan Qaumi Sehat Card initiative on Wednesday, which would give health insurance to households in Punjab, Islamabad, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Tharparkar.

The initiative, which would cost the government Rs450 billion, will give individuals with free medical treatment at government and private facilities. Each family can receive therapy costing Rs1 million per year.

In his remarks at the event in Islamabad, Prime Minister Imran Khan stated both private and government hospitals will no longer be required to pay premiums for universal health care, and that both private and public hospitals will provide treatment to the people.

It is a very ambitious project,” Imran said, adding that the rich and the poor will both have free healthcare for the first time in the country.

The prime minister maintained that the government health system in Pakistan has worsened over time due to ‘elite capture.’

“Doctors refused to attend to remote hospitals either, depriving rural residents of fundamental health requirements,” he continued. He said that Pakistan’s health-care system exclusively catered to the wealthy, and that the disparity between the rich and the poor had grown since the country’s inception.

Imran remarked, criticising past governments, that Pakistan’s ruling elite “never cared to construct a welfare state.”

Concerning healthcare insurance, he stated that this was a “defining moment in Pakistan’s history” that would pave the country’s road to greatness, and that the state owed its security to its people.

Imran also praised Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, adding that the federal government could not have launched the project without the Punjab government’s support. “Punjab is developing five mother and child care hospitals to reduce Pakistan’s high death rate,” he added.

“This is not just a health card, but a healthcare system,” the premier explained, adding that the health card plan will put pressure on government institutions to improve their standards. “If they don’t, people will go to private hospitals, and government hospitals won’t be able to produce cash,” Imran continued.

According to the prime minister, the government would also make it easier for private hospitals to expand into rural regions. “We will grant land at low cost to private hospitals and reduce tariffs on medical equipment in order to support them,” he added, adding that this is only the beginning and that education will be the next step.

According to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, 56 hospitals in the province have been enlisted to provide medical insurance services in 36 districts. He stated that by March 31, the entire population of Punjab would have medical insurance.