Sehat Card 2026 — Easy Step-by-Step Guide to Eligibility, Hospitals & How to Use It
This is not an official BISP website. This guide is independent, general information about the Sehat Card 2026. For official information, always use the 8171 portal at 8171.bisp.gov.pk or the BISP helpline on 0800-26477. For Sehat Card questions, check the official Punjab government portal or call the Sehat Card helpline on 0800-07542.
Quick answer: The Sehat Card 2026 is Punjab’s government health insurance programme: your CNIC is your card, there is no fee and nothing to apply for, and it pays for in-patient treatment at empanelled private hospitals — fully free for cancer, ICU, CCU, NICU, thalassemia and emergencies, and 50% covered for other admitted conditions. It does not work at government hospitals (where treatment is already free) and it does not cover OPD visits or normal delivery. Check your eligibility and the hospital list on 0800-07542 before you travel.
What Is the Sehat Card 2026?
The Sehat Card 2026 is a government health insurance programme that pays for hospital treatment for eligible families, so that a serious illness or an accident does not push a family into debt. Instead of paying the full hospital bill yourself, the programme pays the empanelled hospital directly, up to a yearly limit for your family. You do not pay a premium, and there is no separate card to buy or apply for in Punjab — your CNIC is your card.
In Punjab, the programme is now officially called the Health Insurance Program and is run by the Punjab Health Initiative Management Company (PHIMC), a company of the Government of Punjab. That name change matters, because many older articles, videos, and messages still use old names, old websites, and old rules. If you follow an old guide, you may go to the wrong hospital, the wrong website, or expect a benefit that no longer works the same way. This guide follows the PHIMC rules as reported in September and November 2026, and it tells you clearly where the rules have changed and where you should confirm the current position before you travel to a hospital.
The most important change to understand is this: from 30 June 2025, the Punjab programme was discontinued in government (public-sector) hospitals. It was not stopped altogether. Treatment continues at empanelled private hospitals. PHIMC’s own FAQ says the programme “has not been stopped” and “has only been discontinued in government hospitals”, where treatment was already completely free and still remains free. So if you go to a government hospital, you do not use the Sehat Card there — you use the hospital’s own free treatment. If you go to an empanelled private hospital, the Sehat Card 2026 is what pays for your admission.
That distinction is the source of most of the confusion around the Sehat Card 2026. A neighbour may tell you the card has been stopped, because the government hospital near you no longer accepts it. Another person may tell you it still works, because they were treated free at a private hospital last month. Both can be right about what they saw — they are simply describing different hospitals. Before you plan any treatment, check whether the hospital you have in mind is on the current empanelled list, and call the helpline on 0800-07542 to confirm.
Example — why the hospital matters more than the card: A man in Faisalabad needs a gallbladder operation. His cousin tells him the Sehat Card 2026 has been stopped, so he starts borrowing money for a private operation. At the same time, his neighbour had the same operation free at an empanelled private hospital in the same city, because the hospital was on the panel list and the operation was covered. The difference was not luck — it was the hospital. The card had not stopped; it had simply stopped working at government hospitals, and the first man had only asked at a government hospital.
The Sehat Card 2026 is not the same in every province. Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the federal areas (Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan) run separate versions with different names, limits, and helplines. This guide focuses on Punjab, and it flags the other versions briefly so you do not mix them up. If you live outside Punjab, do not assume the Punjab limits and helpline apply to you — check your own province’s programme.
Who Qualifies for Sehat Card 2026 in Punjab?
According to PHIMC’s FAQ, as reported in September 2026: “All permanent residents of Punjab are eligible for the Health Insurance Program.” That is a wide rule. It is not limited to BISP families, and it is not limited to people below a particular income. If you are a permanent resident of Punjab, you are eligible.
A family, for this programme, means a husband, wife, and their unmarried children. Newborn children are added automatically if they are born in an empanelled hospital, according to the PHIMC information reported in 2026. There is no family-size limit stated, and pre-existing conditions are covered — so a person who already has diabetes, heart disease, or another long-standing illness is not excluded because of it. That matters a great deal, because private health insurance normally refuses pre-existing conditions or charges much more for them. The Sehat Card 2026 does not work that way.
There is no separate registration, and there is nothing to apply for in the usual sense. PHIMC’s FAQ puts it simply: “Your CNIC is your Health Insurance Program.” You do not fill in a form, you do not pay a fee, and you do not wait for a card to arrive in the post. Your eligibility is checked against your NADRA family record when you arrive at an empanelled hospital with your original CNIC. That is also why keeping your NADRA record up to date matters: if your family record is wrong — for example, a child is not listed, or your address still shows another province — the hospital may not find you on the system.
Example — a family that did nothing and was still covered: A daily-wage worker in Multan has never applied for any government scheme. When his wife needs an emergency operation, he takes her to an empanelled private hospital with her CNIC. The hospital checks the record, confirms the family is eligible, and admits her. He had no card, no registration slip, and no prior application — the CNIC was enough, because the family is permanently resident in Punjab and their NADRA record is in order.
Example — a record problem, not a rejection: A woman is told at a hospital that she is shown as ineligible. She has lived in Punjab for years, so this surprises her. At the NADRA office she learns her family record still shows an old address and her youngest child was never added. Once NADRA updates the record, her eligibility is corrected. She was never truly ineligible — her record was out of date. If this happens to you, do not pay an agent to “fix” it. Go to NADRA yourself and update your family data.
If you are a BISP beneficiary, the Sehat Card 2026 is separate from your BISP payments. It does not replace Kafaalat, and it does not reduce your Kafaalat payment. Kafaalat is a quarterly cash payment — Rs 14,500 per quarter for the Oct–Dec 2026 cycle, per the government’s June 2026 announcement, rising to Rs 18,000 planned from January 2027 — check the exact amount for your cycle on the 8171 portal. The Sehat Card is health insurance, not cash. You can receive Kafaalat and use the Sehat Card at the same time. If your Kafaalat payment is ever delayed, that does not cancel your Sehat Card eligibility, and if you use the Sehat Card, that does not affect your Kafaalat payment. They are two different programmes, run by different organisations, and they do not interfere with each other. If you need to check your BISP status, use our guide to check your BISP status by CNIC online or read about Benazir Kafaalat and the 8171 programme. If you are unsure about your household’s BISP position, you can also check your PMT score online.
What the Sehat Card 2026 Covers — and What It Does Not Cover
The Sehat Card 2026 only covers in-patient treatment. That means you must be admitted to the hospital. Outpatient (OPD) visits are not covered: if you see a doctor, get a test, and go home the same day without being admitted, the card pays nothing. This is the second most common misunderstanding, after the government-hospital change. Many people visit a hospital for a check-up, show their CNIC, and are disappointed when they are asked to pay. The card was never designed for check-ups. It is designed for the expensive events — the operation, the long admission, the intensive-care stay — that a poor family could never afford on its own.
At empanelled private hospitals, PHIMC lists the following as free — the programme pays the full cost: cancer treatment, ICU care, CCU (cardiac care) treatment, NICU (newborn intensive care), medical cases, thalassemia treatment, and all emergency services. For other medical conditions, there is a co-payment policy: the programme covers 50% of the treatment cost and the patient’s family pays the remaining 50%. That 50% rule is a real change from the early years of the programme, when many treatments were fully free, and it is the reason you must ask the hospital for a written estimate before a planned admission. A “covered” treatment is not always a “free” treatment.
The yearly limits, as published in the PHIMC FAQ and reported in September 2026, are: Rs 60,000 per family per year for secondary care, Rs 400,000 per family per year for priority care, and up to Rs 1,000,000 in special cases. These limits are per family per year, not per person, so a family that uses up its limit on one member’s treatment has less left for another member in the same year. Confirm the current limits on 0800-07542 before a planned admission, because the limits and the free-versus-50% list have changed before and can change again. Some older guides still quote a flat Rs 1,000,000 for everyone. That figure is now best understood as the upper end for special cases, not the standard limit for every family. Do not plan a treatment on the basis of Rs 1,000,000 without confirming which category your treatment falls into.
Covered treatment during an admission includes, according to the PHIMC information reported in 2026: medical and surgical procedures, emergency admissions, fractures and injuries, heart procedures such as angioplasty and bypass, cancer surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, diabetes complications, burns and road accidents (including life- or limb-saving treatment and prosthesis), hepatitis, HIV and rheumatology care, and neurosurgery. Expenses for one day before admission and up to five days after hospitalisation are also reported as covered. That pre- and post-admission window matters: keep your receipts and prescriptions from the day before admission and the days just after discharge, and ask the hospital whether they fall inside the covered window.
What is not covered, according to the same PHIMC information: outpatient visits (OPD), normal delivery and C-sections, cosmetic procedures, dental treatment, eyeglasses, drug addiction treatment, self-inflicted injuries, injuries from crimes, and anything excluded by the insurance company’s policy. The delivery exclusion surprises many families. A normal delivery or a C-section at an empanelled private hospital is not paid for by the Sehat Card 2026, so do not arrive at a private hospital expecting the card to cover childbirth. Government hospitals provide free delivery care, and that is the route to use. If you are pregnant, plan this in advance — do not discover the exclusion in labour.
Example — the 50% surprise: A family takes their father to an empanelled private hospital for a hernia operation. The operation is covered, but it is not in the fully-free list, so the programme pays half and the family must pay half. They had assumed “covered” meant “free” and had brought no money. If they had asked for the estimate and the free-versus-50% answer the day before, they could have arranged the money calmly.
| Fully free at empanelled private hospitals | 50% covered (family pays the other 50%) | Not covered | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Examples | Cancer, ICU, CCU, NICU, thalassemia, medical cases, all emergencies | Other admitted medical and surgical conditions, within the yearly limits | OPD visits, normal delivery and C-section, cosmetic and dental treatment, eyeglasses |
| What you pay | Nothing for the covered treatment | Half the cost — ask for a written estimate first | The full cost |
| Key limit | Yearly family limits still apply | Yearly family limits still apply | Card does not apply at all |
Sehat Card 2026 in Other Provinces — Do Not Mix Them Up
The Sehat Card 2026 is not one national scheme with one set of rules. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa runs Sehat Card Plus (reported yearly cover up to Rs 1,000,000, helpline 0800-89898 as reported), and the federal areas (Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan) run the PM National Health Program / Sehat Sahulat (reported yearly cover up to Rs 720,000, helpline 0800-09009 as reported), which was reported to have restarted from 16 January 2026. The old SMS number 8500 and the old website sehatsahulat.com.pk belong to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Sehat Card Plus, not to Punjab. Punjab’s official source is PHIMC, at phimc.punjab.gov.pk. If a message asks you to send your CNIC to a number or pay a fee to “activate” a Sehat Card, treat it as fraud — registration is free and nobody can add your name for money.
How to Use the Sehat Card 2026 — Step by Step
Step 1: Confirm You Are Eligible Before You Need It
Do not wait for an emergency to discover a problem with your record. Call the helpline on 0800-07542 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week, according to the PHIMC information reported in 2026) and confirm your family’s eligibility. Have your CNIC number ready. If the helpline says you are not found, or your family record looks wrong, go to the nearest NADRA office and update your family data. Bring your CNIC and, if the issue is a missing child, the child’s B-Form. This one check, done on a calm day, can save hours in an emergency.
Step 2: Find an Empanelled Hospital Near You
Only empanelled hospitals accept the Sehat Card 2026. An empanelled hospital is one that has signed a contract with the programme. Not every private hospital is on the list, and a hospital that was on the list last year may not be on it now. The official list is published on the PHIMC website (phimc.punjab.gov.pk), and the helpline can also tell you the nearest empanelled hospital for your district. The list checked in September 2026 had 153 hospitals in 34 districts, almost all private — but that count changes as hospitals join or leave, so do not rely on a number you read in an old article. Find two hospitals if you can: a first choice and a backup, in case the first is full or does not offer the treatment you need.
Step 3: Take Your Original CNIC and Go to the Hospital
Take your original CNIC — not a photocopy, not a photo on your phone. At the hospital, go to the Sehat Card 2026 desk, if there is one, or to the admission desk, and present the CNIC. The hospital will check your eligibility on the system and confirm whether the treatment you need is covered, whether it is fully free or 50% covered, and how much of your yearly family limit remains. Ask for this in writing before you agree to admission, especially for a planned operation. Ask three questions and write down the answers: Is this treatment covered? Is it fully free or 50%? How much will my family have to pay?
Step 4: Get Admitted and Keep Every Paper
Once admitted, the hospital handles the claim with the programme. Your job is to keep every paper: the admission slip, the doctor’s notes, the test reports, the medicine receipts, and the discharge summary. Keep the receipts for the day before admission and the days after discharge too, because those are reported as covered within the window described above. If the hospital asks you to buy medicine or pay for a test outside the hospital, ask whether it is part of the covered package and keep the receipt either way.
Step 5: At Discharge, Check the Bill Before You Pay Anything
Before you pay, ask the hospital to show you the bill and explain which part the programme paid and which part, if any, your family must pay. For a fully-free category, your share should be nothing for the covered treatment. For a 50% category, your share is half. If the bill does not match what you were told at admission, ask for an explanation before you pay, and call the helpline on 0800-07542 if the hospital cannot explain it. Do not pay a “Sehat Card fee”, a “card activation charge”, or a fee to an agent. The programme charges you nothing for registration or eligibility.
Example — a planned admission done properly: A man needs a heart procedure. A week before the planned date, he calls 0800-07542, confirms his family is eligible, and finds the nearest empanelled hospital that does the procedure. He visits the hospital, shows his CNIC, and is told the procedure is in the priority category, fully covered, and that his family’s yearly limit is untouched. He is admitted on the planned day, keeps every receipt, and at discharge the bill shows the programme paid in full. The preparation took two phone calls and one visit — and removed all the uncertainty.
Your Sehat Card 2026 Hospital-Visit Checklist
- ☐ I have confirmed my family’s eligibility for the Sehat Card 2026 on 0800-07542.
- ☐ I have my original CNIC (and the patient’s CNIC, if it is someone else).
- ☐ I have found an empanelled hospital on the current PHIMC list — and a backup.
- ☐ I have asked: Is this treatment covered? Fully free or 50%? How much will we pay?
- ☐ I know the yearly family limit and how much of it remains.
- ☐ I have kept every receipt, including the day before admission.
- ☐ I have checked the discharge bill before paying anything.
- ☐ I have not paid any agent, activation fee, or registration fee.
Sehat Card 2026: Common Questions
Is the Sehat Card 2026 still working in Punjab? Yes — according to PHIMC, it has not been stopped. It was discontinued in government hospitals from 30 June 2025, where treatment is free anyway, and it continues at empanelled private hospitals. Confirm the current position on 0800-07542 before a planned admission.
Do I need to apply for a Sehat Card 2026? In Punjab, no. There is no separate card and nothing to register for. Your CNIC is your card. If someone offers to register you for a fee, it is fraud.
Does the Sehat Card 2026 cover OPD or a doctor’s check-up? No. Only in-patient treatment — where you are admitted — is covered. Outpatient visits, routine check-ups, and pharmacy costs for walk-in patients are generally not covered.
Does the Sehat Card 2026 cover delivery or a C-section? No, according to the PHIMC information reported in 2026. Normal delivery and C-sections are not covered at empanelled private hospitals. Government hospitals provide free delivery care.
How much will my family have to pay? It depends on the treatment. Cancer, ICU, CCU, NICU, medical cases, thalassemia, and all emergencies are free at empanelled private hospitals. For other conditions, the programme pays 50% and your family pays 50%. Always ask for a written estimate before a planned admission, and confirm the current list on the helpline.
What if the hospital says I am ineligible? First, check that your NADRA family record is up to date — visit a NADRA office and correct it if needed. Then call 0800-07542. Do not pay anyone to fix your eligibility.
Can I use the Sehat Card 2026 outside Punjab? The PHIMC information reported in 2026 says treatment is available at empanelled hospitals across Pakistan, not only in Punjab — but confirm this on the helpline before you travel, because the empanelled list and the rules can change.
Conclusion
The Sehat Card 2026 still matters, but only if you use it the way it actually works now: CNIC in hand, at an empanelled private hospital, for an admission, after confirming whether your treatment is fully free or 50% covered. The families who benefit most are the ones who check their eligibility on a calm day, find their nearest empanelled hospital in advance, and ask for a written estimate before a planned admission. Do those three things, keep every receipt, and never pay an agent or an activation fee. If you are also a BISP beneficiary, remember the two programmes are separate — check your BISP payment on the 8171 portal at 8171.bisp.gov.pk, and check your Sehat Card position on 0800-07542. For anything about your BISP record, our guide to update your CNIC, mobile number, or address in BISP records can help, and if a payment problem ever arises, read why your BISP payment may be delayed and what to do.
