A Parliamentary panel has found that Employees' State Insurance Corporation is flushed with funds but health facilities provided by it are deteriorating.
"Amid deteriorating health facilities, lack of hospitals, scarce beds and shortage of doctors and specialists, the organisation is flushed with funds," observed a Public Accounts Committee in its performance audit report tabled in Parliament today.
The panel suggested that there is much need to be done for effective delivery of medical benefits and expediting cash benefits to the insured persons and with such huge funds, ESIC should endeavour to improve its efficiency and quality of service tremendously.
State-run ESIC provides health insurance and medical services to formal sector workers and their dependends, whose monthly basic wages are up to Rs 21,000.
The committee has also suggested that ESIC should earnestly explore fixing the rate of contributions from employees on the basis of actuarial valuation and apprise it about the basis of contributions to be collected from the unorganised workers including construction workers and self employers workers like rickshaw pullers, auto rickshaw drivers etc.
The panel also suggested that all the districts of the country should be covered by the ESIC within five years and all unorganised/self-employed workers who are not covered under any other Act of the Parliament/Scheme for medical benefits/insurance and mining workers may be brought under this scheme with in a stipulated time frame.
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