ALLOCATION AND EFFICIENCY OF SEHAT SAHULAT PROGRAM

Abstract

Pakistan has made great step in health coverage, offering valuable in patient (IP) cover to some of the most vulnerable members of society through the Sehat Sahulat Program. The program was first initiated in 2015 by provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Now the government of Pakistan intends to extend the Sehat Sahulat Program to the whole country. Though the said program is a great initiative but there arises a question that whether it will work efficiently or not. This study aims to explore the efficiency and sufficiency in allocation of Sehat Sahulat health cards and its amount. The study explores the objectives with the help of case study design, taking district Mardan of KP as a case. The questions are examined with the help of primary data collected through questionnaires and focus group discussions. The study concluded that around 49% of total sample were cardholders and 51% were condition holders. There were 76% cardholders which hold the Sehat Sahulat Program conditions the rest were not. Consequently, efficient allocation of cards and distribution of income has been made by the government. However, the Sehat card amount utilization is not efficient. The factors contributing to this are lack of awareness, fraud by the public and hospital administration. The program will achieve the desired objective more efficiently if the line departments paid the timely attention to these problems.