In a major decision that will hit Central government employees hard, the Centre has increased the rates of subscription under Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) upto five times for fourth grade employees, while the rates of senior level officials have been doubled.
Talking to Millennium Post, CGHS Director DC Joshi said, "Consequent upon revision of pay on the basis of implementation of the recommendations of 7th Central Pay Commission, it has been decided to revise subscriptions the rates, to be made by employees/pensioners, for availing benefits under the CGHS."
"The order would be effective from January 1 this year. When the employees are getting more, they should also pay little more for availing best healthcare facilities available at all CGHS wellness centres," Johsi said.
As per the revised rates, employees falling under level 1 to 5 categories will now have to pay Rs 250 per month for availing CGHS facilities, which was just Rs 50. The staff under these categories would now have to pay five times more subscription charges than the earlier one as their annually charges have been revised from Rs 600 to Rs 3,000.
Similarly, the subscription charge for employees of level 6 has been revised from Rs 125 to Rs 450, which is about 4 times higher than the previous fee.
With revised charges coming into effect, the central employees would now have to cough up 3,900 more per annum as the previous annual fee was Rs 1,500, which has been increased to Rs 5,400. As per the revised rates, the officials of level 7 to 11 categories would have to pay Rs 650 per month which was Rs 225 prior to revision and the employees of level 12 and above would have to pay Rs 1,000 per month from Rs 500 that they were paying.