New Delhi: Road accident victims will be entitled to medical care in the golden hour post an accident under a new health care scheme that will make cashless treatment of accident victims mandatory at designated hospitals even for the uninsured.
The scheme, which will be developed under the aegis of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), will provide cashless treatment of up to ₹1.5 lakh per accident per person. It will cover hospitalization for up to 7 days from the date of the accident at all hospitals listed in the government’s Ayushman Bharat scheme.
Support for victims
The scheme is being framed with the aim to support road accident victims in the country—among the highest in the world.
According to Anurag Jain, secretary, MoRTH the result of a pilot being run in Chandigarh since March would be studied, and designs of the new scheme would be finalized for approval of the government before its nationwide launch soon.
Cashless treatment
“The new scheme would provide cashless treatment to all road accidents at designated hospitals and will offer the cover even to victims of uninsured vehicles so that immediately medical attention is not denied in the golden hour that helps to save lives,” Jain said.
The National Health Authority (NHA) is the implementing agency for the pilot program, in coordination with police, hospitals and State Health Agencies (SHA). Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) packages for trauma cases have been co-opted while claims raised by hospitals for providing treatment to the accident victims will be reimbursed from the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund.
According to another official of MoRTH who asked not to be quoted as he is not authorized to speak to the media, the national launch of the scheme may follow soon after the formation of the new government with allocation for funds in the budget that would be in excess of the funds already available in the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund.
Extended scheme
The proposed scheme will be an extension of one framed in January 2022 that established a Motor Vehicle Accident Fund Trust with a corpus of about ₹76 crore transferred from the Solatium Fund Scheme of 1989. The scheme managed by the General Insurance (GI) Council currently only compensates victims of hit-and-run cases with death compensation of ₹2 lakh and ₹50,000 for grievous injury.
“The scheme in its final form would ensure that all road accident victims get proper treatment at hospitals including victims of accidents involving uninsured vehicles and hit-and-run cases. While insurance companies’ contributions would cover treatment of victims of insured vehicles, accidents involving even uninsured vehicles would be provided full cashless treatment from the fund during the golden hour and recovery and penalty from such uninsured vehicles could be made later,” Jain said.
To be ready with its plan on cashless treatment, MoRTH has spoken with general insurance companies seeking a contribution of 2.97% of the third party premium paid for insuring vehicles to the Fund. They will also use the money credited from Solatium Fund. For uninsured vehicles, the Fund will get its money from MoRTH user-charge collections and budgetary support from the government.
Pilot scheme
“Inputs from the pilot scheme would be important to design the new scheme that would be a big support to road accident victims,” said the official quoted earlier.
According to MoRTH, 461,312 road accidents were reported by police departments during calendar year 2022, claiming 168,491 lives—the highest toll in the world—and causing injuries to 443,366 persons.
The data also suggests that the average number of hit-and-runs in India resulting in grievous injury or death in any one year is about 25,000.
Of the total accidents in the country in 2022, 151,997 (32.9%) took place on national highways (NH) including expressways, 106,682 (23.1%) on state highways (SH) and the remaining 202,633 (43.9%) on other roads.
Reducing fatalities
Out of the total of 168,491 fatalities reported in 2022, 61,038 (36.2%) were on national highways, 41,012 (24.3%) on state highways and 66,441 (39.4%) on other roads.
Out of the total, 155,781 fatal accidents reported in 2022, 55,571 (35.7%) were on national highways, 37,861 (24.3%) on state highways and 62,349 (40%) on other roads.
MoRTH is also taking various measures to make Indian highways safer and reduce fatalities on road.
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