Goa has become the first state in the country to have launched “Swarnajayanti Aarogya Bima Yojana” providing health insurance cover for the entire resident population of the state. The State Government on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding, MOU, with ICICI Lombard which is the implenting agency for the new health insurance cover. The cashless health insurance scheme provides for meeting expenses of hospitalization for medical and/or surgical procedure including maternity benefit to the enrolled families’ upto 60,000 rupees per family per year subject to limits in any of the government and private hospitals and nursing homes. About 3.2 lakh families in the state would be entitled to be in the purview of the scheme.