Sehat Card in Punjab and KP: is it still working, the limit, and how to check

The Sehat Card still works in 2026, but differently in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). In Punjab it covers Rs 4 lakh a family a year for major treatment, only at private empanelled hospitals since 30 June 2025. KP’s Sehat Card Plus covers every resident family for up to Rs 10 lakh a year. To check if your family is covered, send your CNIC number by SMS to 8500. Your CNIC is the card, and OPD visits are never covered.

How do I check if I have a Sehat Card?

Send your 13-digit CNIC number by SMS to 8500. The reply comes within a few minutes. In KP you can also send it to 9780, the programme’s 2025 FAQ says.

There’s nothing to apply for and no separate card to collect. If you are a permanent resident of a covered province on your NADRA record, your family is enrolled, and your original CNIC is your Sehat Card.

If you aren’t showing up, the problem is usually your NADRA family record. In KP, newly married couples and widows or divorced women registering as head of family are added on 1 January and 1 July. A newborn is covered for its first month, and after that needs a Form-B.

What is the Punjab Sehat Card limit?

Pakistan Observer reported Punjab’s limits from PHIMC’s website in March 2025. They match the federal Sehat Sahulat Program’s 2025 FAQ:

PHIMC is the Punjab Health Initiative Management Company, which runs the card in Punjab. The limit refills once a year. Life-threatening conditions still get treatment after the limit runs out, the report said. We couldn’t open PHIMC’s website from our location on 24 October 2026 to check for newer limits.

Is the Sehat Card still working in Punjab?

Yes, but with three big changes since 2023:

1. Only private hospitals. PHIMC closed the scheme in all public hospitals from 30 June 2025. PHIMC’s chief executive said public hospitals are already free, and Daily Times reported that CM programmes now pay for heart surgery and dialysis there. Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafiq said the card remains fully operational in private hospitals.
2. Not outside Punjab. From 1 July 2025, Punjab cardholders can’t use the card at hospitals in Islamabad, AJK, Sindh, KP, Balochistan or Gilgit-Baltistan, ARY News reported from a State Life document.
3. You pay half at private hospitals. Punjab added a co-payment in September 2023 and raised it to 50% from 16 January 2024, The News reported. In July 2025 a doctors’ association leader told Voicepk that patients may still pay up to 50% at private hospitals.

What is the Maryam Nawaz health card?

We found no renamed Sehat Card. People searching for a “Maryam Nawaz health card” are probably looking for the CM Special Initiative Card, which Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz announced on 9 December 2025. It pays for treatment of cancer and heart patients up to Rs 10 lakh each, for 45,000 patients in its first phase, Dunya News reported.

The reports didn’t say how to get the card, and we found no later notice on how patients apply. It is separate from the Sehat Card.

How does the KP Sehat Card Plus work?

Sehat Card Plus covers every permanent resident family of KP, about 10.7 million families, ProPakistani reported in March 2026. State Life Insurance runs it, and you can use it at any empanelled hospital in Pakistan.

The first rows come from the KP FAQ archived in April 2025. Dawn reported the Rs 10 lakh family total in January 2024, and Profit reported the life insurance payout in January 2025.

The KP budget for the card rose from Rs 35 billion in 2025 to Rs 41 billion, the health minister said in September 2026. Hospitals have complained of late payments: Ayub Teaching Hospital had received Rs 38 million of the Rs 700 million it was owed, ProPakistani reported in March 2026.

What does the Sehat Card cover?

Only treatment that needs a hospital admission. The federal programme’s FAQ lists heart procedures, cancer treatment, dialysis, diabetes, burns, road accidents and organ failure. Your husband or wife and unmarried children are covered, with no limit on family size.

It doesn’t cover OPD visits, and you get no cash if you never use it. In December 2023 Punjab also stopped delivery cases and cataract surgery at private hospitals, The News reported.

Where is the Sehat Card hospital list?

On each programme’s website. We couldn’t open PHIMC’s site or KP’s sehatcardplus.gov.pk from our location on 24 October 2026, so we can’t link a current list. In Punjab, ask the hospital whether it is empanelled before admission: only 191 of the 318 empanelled hospitals had a regular licence by 20 December 2023, The News reported.

KP’s programme had 700 empanelled hospitals in March 2026, 169 of them inside KP.

What if the Sehat Card doesn’t cover enough?

Private health insurance can fill the gap, especially in Punjab now that you pay half of most private-hospital bills. Our guide to health insurance in Pakistan compares plans from Rs 2.25 lakh to Rs 10 lakh a year, and the federal card in Islamabad, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan.

More guides: Health insurance in Pakistan · Life insurance in Pakistan · CM Punjab schemes list · BISP 8171 · CM Punjab Himmat Card