The Punjab government is set to announce a major health insurance scheme that will cover all 65 lakh families in the state. The scheme will be officially launched by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday.
A senior government official confirmed that the plan will be presented for Cabinet approval by the end of the week. After that, the government will invite bids from insurance companies to implement the scheme. The rollout is expected within the next three months.
Each family in Punjab will receive a Sehat Card, which will provide cashless and paperless treatment worth up to ₹10 lakh per year at government and empanelled private hospitals. There will be no limit on the number of family members covered under this plan.
This initiative, announced in the 2025-26 state budget with an allocation of ₹778 crore, will make Punjab the first state in India to offer a universal health insurance cover of ₹10 lakh — regardless of a person’s income or location.
Currently, only four states — Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and Uttarakhand — offer universal health insurance, and their maximum coverage is ₹5 lakh. In Punjab, around 45 lakh families are already covered under central and state schemes like Ayushman Bharat and Mukh Mantri Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana, which offer ₹5 lakh coverage. These families will now receive an additional ₹5 lakh in top-up coverage.
The remaining 20 lakh families, who are not covered under any existing government schemes, will get the full ₹10 lakh coverage.
The upgraded health scheme will also cover retired government employees living outside Punjab and people seeking treatment in hospitals outside the state, as long as those hospitals are part of the Ayushman Bharat network. Around 1,950 medical procedures will be covered under this scheme.
Between 2019 and 2024, Punjab saw nearly 20 lakh hospital admissions costing ₹2,490 crore, highlighting the need for strong healthcare support.
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