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More than 74,000 residents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa received free medical treatment outside the province in 2025 under the Sehat Card Plus (SCP) programme, with Punjab emerging as the largest beneficiary, according to official data from the KP Health Department.
Data shows that 73,919 KP residents living in other provinces due to work or business accessed healthcare services under SCP last year. The KP government spent Rs3.452 billion through the State Life Insurance Corporation, which implements the programme.
Punjab accounted for the largest share, where 40,772 patients were treated at 478 empanelled hospitals, mostly in Lahore, costing Rs1.982 billion. Islamabad followed, with treatment expenses of Rs1.123 billion, while Sindh, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Jammu & Kashmir also benefited under the scheme.
KP has now empanelled 804 public and private hospitals across Pakistan, allowing residents to receive secondary and tertiary care without returning to the province. Services include surgeries related to neurology, orthopaedics, gynaecology, ENT, ophthalmology, and other critical treatments.
Since expanding beyond KP, the programme has enabled 350,000 residents to receive treatment outside the province. This includes 99 liver transplants, each costing Rs6.5 million, covering surgery and one-year post-transplant care.
Launched in February 2016, Sehat Card Plus has become one of Pakistan’s largest public health insurance initiatives. In 2025 alone, the programme served 1.2 million residents at a cost of Rs35 billion. Currently, 10.6 million families are registered, each eligible for up to Rs1 million annually.
An official from the KP Health Department stated, “Before nationwide empanelment, patients either paid out of pocket or travelled back to KP. This expansion ensures timely and free healthcare wherever residents are living.”
Since its launch, nearly 5 million KP residents have received free healthcare services worth Rs135 billion, significantly reducing the financial burden on low- and middle-income families.
