Kathmandu, February 11

Nepali migrant workers can get health insurance coverage for 15 types of critical illness from tomorrow as the Insurance Board has fixed the insurance premium at Rs 400 for the same.

The IB has already instructed the insurance companies to provide coverage for critical illness to migrant workers in their term life insurance.

The government has made insurance mandatory for those going overseas for employment.

The 15 types of critical illness defined by the government include cancer, kidney failure, primary pulmonary arterial hypertension, multiple sclerosis, major organ transplant, coronary artery bypass grafts, aorta graft surgery, heart valve surgery, stroke, myocardial infarction (first heart attack), coma, total blindness, paralysis, benign brain tumour and mental illness caused due to an accident (traumatic).

Along with the provision to insure for critical illness, the insurance coverage for migrant workers has now reached Rs two million.

The Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB), which is led by minister for the labour and employment, and Insurance Board — the insurance sector regulator — had jointly exercised to define critical illnesses and fix the premium, respectively, as per the instruction given by Prime Minister Puspa Kamal Dahal.

Prime Minister Dahal had announced the insurance coverage for critical illnesses for Nepali migrant workers some three weeks back.

The insured individual will be compensated Rs 500,000 if he or she suffers from the illnesses defined in the policy. Likewise, the beneficiary will be entitled to Rs one million as life insurance, Rs 200,000 for loss of income, Rs 100,000 for funeral rites, Rs 100,000 for treatment and Rs 100,000 for cost of

bringing home the dead body from foreign destination.

Henceforth, migrant workers need to pay Rs 400 as premium for the insurance of critical illnesses on top of the premium amount worth Rs 3,524 for age group of 18 to 35, Rs 4,930 for 36 to 50 age group and Rs 9,570 for 51 to 64 age group, which was fixed by the Insurance Board earlier, according to Shreeman Karki, director of the IB.

Now onwards, the term life insurance will provide coverage for one additional year from the contract period of the migrant workers.

Earlier, the term life insurance policy for migrant worker had validity of six months after the contract period of foreign job-seekers ended in the labour destination.

The government has also provided grace period of three months (from the date of expiry) for migrant workers to renew their insurance policy and has urged them to renew it within April 24 so that no migrant worker is deprived of insurance coverage, as per Raghu Raj Kaphle, executive director of the FEPB.

The government has provided Rs one million to IB to settle the claims of insurance firms for the purpose of renewing the insurance policy of migrant workers under the scheme.