Medical facilities to non-pensioners of the military: Historic day for Short Service Commissioned Officers, Emergency Commissioned Officers, World War II veterans and pre-mature retirees

The Cabinet has today extended the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) to the above categories of non-pensioners of the military.

Non-pensioner ‘ex-servicemen’ were initially granted medical facilities in Military Hospitals in 1970 but the same were discretionary. Later, ‘pension’ was made mandatory to avail such facilities. Again in 1997, the term ‘ex-pensioners’ was replaced by ‘ex-servicemen’ thereby restoring the facilities to non-pensioners having ‘ex-servicemen’ status such as Short Service Commissioned Officers and Emergency Commissioned Officers (SSCOs and ECOs) who were made entitled to Outpatient (OPD) facilities. However, in the late 2000s, the facilities were withdrawn by the office of the Director General Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS) despite stiff resistance by the Army HQ.

The matter went into litigation wherein the Chandigarh Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) ultimately directed the Government to restore the facilities to the affected ex-servicemen. The Government though filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the verdict of the AFT.

The matter was referred to a Committee of Experts, of which I too was a Member, which, after deliberating the subject, recommended the following:

(a) Existing limited outpatient medical facilities in MHs to non-pensioners holding the status of Ex-servicemen to continue as per already approved instructions and Services HQ to continue issuing and honouring Medical Entitlement Cards for such facilities as was the case till late 2000s. The entitled non-pensioners also continue to be eligible for medical reimbursement from Kendriya Sainik Board. It may be pointed out here that the said facilities are anyway not entitled to be granted to re-employed ex-servicemen or those who are members of any medical scheme.

(b) The unethical appeal filed against grant of such facilities to own personnel to which actually they were legally entitled to, be immediately withdrawn and such ego-fuelled actions be avoided in the future. We wish such persistence and exertion in pursuing such misdirected litigation is rather used for constructive activities.

(c) ECHS facilities for SSCOs as mentioned, as already approved in-principle by the then Raksha Mantri and mentioned in the Parliament on the floor of the House, be implemented forthwith by overcoming all objections. The same be made applicable to all SSCOs and ECOs and all other personnel released without the benefit of pension but on completion of terms with a gratuity, present and former, with certain amendments as deemed appropriate such as that the scheme can only be extended to the officer and spouse alone and that it would not apply to those who are re-employed with a cover of an organizational medical scheme. The issue of financial implication may not be relevant since firstly the scheme is contributory in nature, and secondly, the then Raksha Mantri has already made a statement to the effect on the floor of the house. Besides bringing succour to our veterans, it would act as a major morale booster to the rank and file and also help attract talent to the Short Service Commission Scheme.

(d) It is recommended that the Government must go all out to bolster the resources of the military medical establishment since they are rendering impeccable services in trying circumstances to our men and women in uniform. There should never be an occasion wherein doctors perform duties under pressure. An environment free of all encumbrances, external constraints and stress must be ensured for the medical establishment to function in an efficient manner

The recommendations were accepted by the then Raksha Mantri Mr Manohar Parrikar but were not given effect to for a long period. The Supreme Court had taken a grim view of the delay and had asked the Government to resolve the matter by April 2019.

The Cabinet has today approved the extension of ECHS to various categories of non-pensioners of the military and it is understood that on the appreciable insistence of the current Raksha Mantri Ms Nirmala Sitharaman, even other categories such as pre-mature retirees, which were not covered in the recommendations of the Committee of Experts or by judicial dicta, have also been brought in the ambit of the scheme. 

Broadly speaking, eligible beneficiaries and their spouses would be entitled to absolutely free Outpatient (OPD) facilities at ECHS polyclinics, however treatment and In-patient (IPD) facilities at ECHS empanelled hospitals would be on payment basis. Further, 50% of such expenditure would be reimbursable for personnel with 10 years service or less and 75% would be reimbursable for those with more than 10 years of service. 

This marks a closure to long drawn travails of affected officers and personnel. My congratulations to them.

Thanks

Navdeep