By Shri G. L. Jogi., General Secretary, Sanchar Nigam Pensioners Welfare Association (SNPWA)
The government attacks health security of pensioners by introducing market-linked insurance policy in place of the current CGHS.
Dear Comrades of SNPWA
The Government has initiated yet another devilish, lethal and deceptive move that strikes at the very roots of pensioners’ existence. Under the guise of “reform” and “augmentation,” it has introduced a market-linked insurance policy for CGHS beneficiaries —a move that is neither innocent nor benevolent.
Let us be clear:
This is not an attempt to strengthen CGHS.
This is a calculated step towards dismantling it altogether.
The covert design is obvious—to replace a welfare-based CGHS system with a market-driven insurance mechanism, where the entire financial burden and risk are shifted onto the shoulders of the Beneficiaries themselves.
The Two Pillars of Pensioners’ Survival
For pensioners, life and dignity rest on two non-negotiable pillars:
Pension, and Health Security through CGHS
Both are now under direct, diabolical and systematic attack.
Assault on Pension
The attack on pension has already begun:
Through the Finance Bill, 2025, and
More dangerously, through the Terms of Reference of the 8th Central Pay Commission.
The TOR shockingly claims that:
Pensioners have never contributed to the pension corpus, and
Pensions are being paid by taxpayers’ charity.
This is a blatant falsehood.
By deliberately branding OPS pensions as “unfunded and non-contributory”, the Government has exposed its ultimate intention—
- to delegitimise pension itself,
- to abolish it in the long run, and
- to push pensioners into uncertain, market-linked mechanisms, forcing them to fund their own survival.
The Hidden Dangers of “Paripoorna Bima”
The newly introduced Paripoorna Bima Insurance Scheme, cleverly sugar-coated as an “additional benefit” to CGHS, is riddled with serious and dangerous deficiencies:
- Not free* – premium is chargeable at market rates
- 24-month waiting period for pre-existing diseases
- Exorbitant co-payments of 30% to 50%
- Forfeiture of premium if any pre-existing disease is deemed “not disclosed”
- No OPD coverage
- No medicine supply coverage
In effect, this scheme nakedly strips pensioners of comprehensive healthcare while making them pay heavily for uncertain and conditional benefits.
The Writing on the Wall
This is not reform.
This is withdrawal of responsibility.
This is privatisation of welfare.
This is an assault on dignity, security, and survival.
An attack on CGHS is an attack on pensioners’ right to live with dignity.
An attack on pension is an attack on social justice.
Our Resolve:
We must see through this deception and sinister design.
We must resist this silent dismantling and murderous onslaught.
We must defend CGHS and pension as earned rights—not charity.
Hands off our pension!
Hands off our health security!
Hands off our dignity!
United we resist. United we prevail. United we defeat. United we expose. United we exist. United we survive.