Pakistan plans to retain 20% of public hospitals’ income — Dawn

In Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, authorities plan to retain part of the income that public hospitals receive under the Sehat Card Plus free health insurance programme. Under the preliminary plan, the government will keep 20% of each public hospital’s total income from the programme.

Health Minister Khalikur Rehman told Dawn that the proposal, along with other measures to improve the programme, has already been presented to the province’s chief minister. After final revision, the plan is to be submitted to the provincial cabinet for approval.

Changes to the law

To implement the initiative, the health department is preparing amendments to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universal Health Coverage Act 2020. The current law provides that public hospitals retain all additional income from the programme without cuts to budget funding. These funds may be used to improve the quality of medical services and pay staff incentives.

According to the publication’s sources in the health secretariat, the issue of deductions from the income of medical teaching institutions and public hospitals was discussed during a briefing for Chief Minister Sohail Afridi about two weeks ago. The sources explained the proposal by saying that public hospitals already receive budget funding and their employees receive salaries.

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Scale of the programme

The Sehat Card Plus programme was launched in 2015: initially, it covered 3% of the population in four districts of the province. In 2020, the programme was expanded to the entire population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Currently, 10.6 million families are eligible for treatment worth up to 1 million Pakistani rupees per year.

The provincial authorities have spent more than 155 billion rupees on cashless medical services for 5.7 million patients. Public hospitals received more than half of these funds. The programme is implemented nationwide by the State Life Insurance Corporation, while residents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa can receive services at 1,000 hospitals included in the programme by presenting their national identity card.

According to the minister, the programme’s budget was increased from 35 billion rupees in 2025 to 41 billion rupees to improve services and expand them at the local level.