Bengaluru: In a new initiative, the State Government has announced that it will pay for the medical expenses of certain rare diseases among Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC&ST) people, under Ayushman Bharat Health Scheme.

This was disclosed by Health and Medical Education Minister Dr. K. Sudhakar, in a press release.

With this new initiative, the State Government has come forward to the rescue of poor people who suffer from rare diseases which result in high medical expenses. Many diseases are being covered under Ayushman Bharat and Arogya Karnataka and expenses are being met by Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust. But, some rare diseases have not been included under this programme and also there is no treatment for these diseases in Government Hospitals.

Under such circumstances, patients need to take treatment at  private hospitals. In this backdrop, Suvarna Arogya Trust sent a proposal about the treatments and list of prices related  to the treatments. The State Government  has accepted these proposals and issued  an order to this effect. In addition, steps have been initiated to identify the methods of treatment for diseases whose treatment costs are high.

For this, under Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) Rs.7.39 crore and under  Special Component Plan (SCP) for SCs  Rs.15.79 crore, totalling a sum of Rs.23.18 crore has been released. Price of  Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Scan is fixed at Rs.10,000, Bone Marrow Transplant at Rs.7 lakh and Rs. 21 lakh under two methods and Rs.1.5 lakh for Robotic Surgery have been fixed, says the press release issued by Minister Dr. Sudhakar.