Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-08-22

Providing a Group Health Insurance Scheme for school children

- An allocation of Rs.2,700 million has been made by the Budget 2017 for the implementation of a programme to provide an Insurance Coverage worth of Rs.200,000/- for each school child, free of charge, for all the school children in the country counting 4.5 million within the age group between 05 to 19 years. The proposed Insurance Coverage will provide Rs.10,000/- for outpatient services and Rs.100,000/- for hospitalization. In addition, this Insurance Coverage will make a payment of Rs.100,000/- to the parents for the sudden death of a school child and Rs.75,000/- to the school child for the sudden death of either the mother or the father of the student. Further, a Rs.100,000/- for the permanent total disability of a school child and a Rs.50,000/- to Rs.100,000/- for the partial disability could be obtained as compensation under this scheme.

Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, the Minister of Education, to implement this Insurance Scheme by the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation, subject to an annual installment of Rs.2,348 million, as recommended by the Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee (CAPC), was approved by the Cabinet.