{"id":16206,"date":"2026-01-16T12:52:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2026\/01\/16\/expanding-national-health-card-ten-million\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T12:52:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:52:29","slug":"expanding-national-health-card-ten-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2026\/01\/16\/expanding-national-health-card-ten-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Expanding National Health Card for Ten Million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal announced that permanent residents of Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan will benefit from the <strong>National Health Card<\/strong>, enabling nearly 10 million people to access free treatment without facing financial hardship.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the inauguration of the National Health Card launched by the Prime Minister, the minister cited a World Health Organization estimate that around 13 million Pakistanis have fallen below the poverty line because of illness-related costs. He said the National Health Card will prevent poor families from travelling from place to place in search of care or being forced to sell household items and jewellery to cover medical bills.<\/p>\n<p>Mustafa Kamal said more than 1,000 public and private hospitals have been empanelled under the National Health Card to ensure that emergency care and major surgical procedures are provided free of charge and with dignity. He stressed that no child should be denied treatment because of poverty and that mothers should not live in fear of the cost of healthcare under the Prime Minister\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n<p>The minister highlighted persistent regional inequalities in access to services, noting that residents of the same Karachi neighbourhood can face different treatment entitlements based solely on the address on their identity cards. He described the current situation as unjust and urged expansion of the scheme to bring equitable access across urban and rural areas.<\/p>\n<p>Mustafa Kamal asked the Prime Minister to include ten additional urban and rural districts of Sindh in the National Health Card programme, estimating an annual allocation requirement of Rs. 24 billion. The Prime Minister indicated he would raise the matter with the Chief Minister of Sindh following the minister\u2019s request.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond immediate coverage, the minister said Pakistan\u2019s health system must shift from a reactive sick care model to comprehensive healthcare that prioritises prevention. He said practical steps are underway to transform services so citizens receive more equitable and preventive health support alongside treatment.<\/p>\n<p>The announced expansion of the National Health Card aims to widen free healthcare access, address regional disparities and strengthen the country\u2019s move toward a more inclusive, preventive health system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal Health Minister announces expansion of National Health Card to offer free healthcare to nearly 10 million and tackle regional disparities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}