The editorial titled 'Situation of financial hardship during health treatment' related to the issue of the health insurance program not being successful in the country and the resulting increase in poverty, felt timely and important.

Although the constitution gives equal access to health services to every citizen, the number of people who are deprived of treatment and suffering is increasing every year. Contrary to the expectations of the health insurance program, due to lack of efficient management, the insured people are getting killed. It is a disappointing situation that the liability of the Health Insurance Board, which was established in 2072, is constantly increasing, it is struggling to meet the expenses of the insured persons, and now the arrears have reached 17.4 billion rupees. In the 9 years since the program started, the number of insured is only 34 percent, and the number of renewals has also decreased due to the loss of trust.

By 2077/78, 75 percent of renewals were done, in the following 2 years, the numbers dropped to 64 and 59 percent respectively. Looking at the situation of premium collection and expenditure, the insurance program does not seem to be successful with the current management. Since the establishment of the board in the year 2072, 11.62 billion 77.7 million 10.000 rupees have been collected from the premiums and the expenses of this period have reached 40.7 billion 3.623.000 rupees, how will the program be successful? Along with this, the program has reached a state where 30 million claims of 25-30 thousand insured people are coming to the board every day.

There are actually countless reasons why insurance programs are not successful. Some people who are connected to insurance try to get more facilities even if they don't need it, medicines prescribed by doctors are not available in the hospital pharmacy, hospitals connected to insurance claim payment in a suspicious manner, and there is no subtle monitoring of discrepancies. Political interference in the board, access to big leaders and the tendency to take more benefits from the insurance program are equally dangerous. Unless the stakeholders are honest and disciplined, the insurance program will not succeed and the public will surely remain mired in poverty due to medical expenses.

- Bhuvneshwar Sharma , Chandragiri-2, Kathmandu