The Nepal Weekly 
March 18, 2025
The Ministry of Health and Population has made public the report of the Health Insurance Reform Recommendations Task Force.
Speaking at a programmeheld at the ministry on March 16, Health Minister Pradeep Paudel said that health insurance can be managed without any additional burden on the common people, and that the government is moving in that direction. “We have moved forward with the implementation of the action plan that can be carried out by the ministry and the Health Insurance Board,” he pointed out. “Now, it will be mandatory to have a unit to provide health insurance at every level.”
Minister Paudel said that it is not only the health insurance plan of federal government but also the local governments. Health insurance belongs to the governments at all three levels, he said, adding that the fund spent by all three governments for the health treatment of citizens needs to be used to strengthen the insurance fund. This is possible if all three governments collaborate.
The Health Minister informed that the current amount is around 30 billion rupees and hoped that if this amount is spent through a single-door system to strengthen the health insurance fund, the current financial shortage will be solved.
“Since 3 billion in the budget every year is not enough to cover the cost of insurance, we have increased it a couple of times this year,” he said, adding that it will be increased to 10 billion in the upcoming budget.
Minister Paudel said that the current Health Insurance Fund would be strengthened if arrangements could be made to directly transfer only a small portion of the taxes imposed on sugary products that have a greater impact on the health of citizens and on pollution, tobacco, alcohol, etc. that have an adverse impact on health.
“We have initiated a system to transfer tax money directly to the fund without additional burden on the citizens,” he said. “If this is considered a state programme, not as just a Ministry of Health programme, the fund will turn stronger. So as the health insurance programmewill be effective as desired.”
Discussing that many such resources can be brought into the insurance fund, Minister Paudel announced a plan to provide health insurance for state employees through the Health Insurance Fund, with one percent of the salary paid by the citizens and the remaining one percent by the state.
Minister Paudel expressed his confidence that the Health Insurance Fund could be made stronger than what it is now and that socialism in health could be implemented through it.
The task force led by Dr. Sambhu Acharya submitted the report to Minister Paudel on December 31. Senior cardiologist Dr.Bhagwan Koirala, development economist and current executive director of the Health Insurance Board Dr. Raghuraj Kafle, and representatives from the Ministry of Health and Finance were included in the committee.
Based on the report prepared by the committee, an action plan was also presented to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
