Pros and Cons of Employee's State Insurance Corporation (ESIC)

ESI is a must for employees whose monthly salary is less than Rs,15000/- basic. It is the duty of the employer to see that ESI is implemented in their organisation. Some portion of the contribution will be deducted from the salary of the employee and some portion will be paid by the employer.
It is very good to join ESI. It is very useful for people whose income levels are less. These days ESI hospitals are working very efficiently and they have very good hospitals. They recommend the patients to other best hospitals if necessary and all the expenditure will be borne by the ESI.
I was working in an organisation where ESI is in force. I was not a member as I am not in the income bracket. My salary is higher than the limit. One worker's father had a serious illness and they took him to ESI hospital and the ESI doctor referred him to a big corporate hospital; where the facilities required for curing the illness and he was treated there. All the expenses are given by ESI and no single paise is to be spent by this. Almost Rs.20.00.000/- was the expenditure and ESI paid the total money.
So it is very essential to join in ESI scheme.

There is no questioning about ESIC. ESIC is a part of Social Security Measure to an employee since his joining in an employment. A taste can be understood only when we taste it and mere discussing about the taste of a thing cannot be done without tasting. Similarly, many employee members do not approach ESI dispensaries and Hospitals by keeping their mind strongly that the treatment in ESIC dispensaries and hospitals are poor and not upto standard. But without going there we cannot say so. Only an employee gone there and found some 'ifs and buts' he or she can raise their voice. Generally speaking the treatment in ESIC dispensaries and Hospitals are more than private hospitals but the thing affected them is 'waiting'. Our people has no patience to wait as a patient or an attendant. I have seen in my experience as Personnel Officer, the treatment in almost all ESI Hospitals and Dispensaries of all parts of our country is good.
Benefits of ESI membership to an employee:
a) medical treatment even operation level - this can be available to the employee, his/her spouse, parents, Children
b) Maternity benefit - treatment, cash for the loss due to leave from the organisation, leave for maternity period, c) Accidental benefit in case they met with some accident in connection with the employment - this can be life long in some cases.
Before thirty years itself my father got operated his Hernia treatment through ESI hospital, Chennai as a dependent of my ESI membership.
I am seeing many healthy maternity treatments are going even at the operation level.

ESIC provides the facility of treatment of common to serious diseases is available in some specific hospitals. Earlier, only those involved in ESIC coverage in ESIC hospitals used to get treatment, but now the government has opened it to the general public as well.

These employers come under the purview - All those companies and establishments come under the purview of ESI, where there are 10 or more employees. The benefit of this is available to those employees, whose monthly income is 21 thousand rupees or less, in the case of PwD, the income limit is 25000 rupees.

Contribution to ESIC
Both employees and employers contribute to the ESIC. At present, 0.75 percent contribution from employee's salary and 3.25 percent from the employer. Registration for ESIC is done by the employer. For this, the employee has to give information about the family members and the nominee also has to decide the employee.

Benefits of the scheme
Medical benefits: The insured and dependent family members get medical benefits. It is the responsibility of the state government to provide medical benefits. Primary services are provided through employee state insurance hospitals/dispensaries and panel clinics, while highly specialized services are provided through reputed medical institutions in the country on a referral basis. The ESIC insured is paid cash for 91 days of sick leave.
Maternity Benefit: Up to 26 weeks in delivery during ESIC maternity leave. In the case of abortion up to 6 weeks, in case of adoption, 100 percent of the average daily salary is paid in cash for 12 weeks.
Disability Benefit: ESIC pays a continuous monthly pension throughout the life of an insured person till the time the injury is cured in case of temporary disability, and the case of permanent disability.
Dependent Benefit: If an insured dies during employment, ESIC pays a monthly pension in fixed proportion to his or her dependents. This benefit is paid to the dependent person within a maximum period of three months of the death of the insured person and thereafter regular payment is made on monthly basis. The pension is divided into 3 parts. First, the wife of the insured will get a pension. Second, the insured's children get it, and third, the insured's parents get it.
Unemployment Allowance: If an insured person becomes permanently disabled due to involuntary loss or injury other than employment, then he gets a cash monthly allowance for a period of 24 months.
Old Age Medical Benefit: Medical benefits are given in ESI Hospitals and Dispensaries to the insured who has retired after completing the service.
Vocational Training: ESIC pays the insured person a fee of Rs 123 per day, or the actual fee charged in case of disability due to injury during employment.
Physical Rehabilitation: In the event of physical disability due to injury during employment, the insured is paid at the rate of temporary disability benefit as long as he remains admitted to the artificial limb center.
Maternity expenditure: In cases where the pregnant woman does not get medical benefits in ESI hospitals, she gets a cash payment of Rs 7500 for treatment in external hospitals. This benefit is given twice.
Funeral expenses: In the event of the death of the insured by ESIC, a basic payment or a maximum of Rs.15 thousand cash is paid for his funeral.

Employee State Insurance (ESI) scheme is one of the flagship schemes of the central Govt in the sense that it covers insurance interest of employees working in factories and other establishments. The scheme also covers and supports restaurants, motor road transports, newspaper establishments and undertakings, movies and purview theatres, hotels, shops etc.
The scheme was conceived under the ESI Act 1948. It is a mandatory scheme for any such organisation where number of employees is more than 10 (some states have slight changes in this) and it covers all those whose wages are not above Rs 21000 per month. So, this schemes covers all these low salaried people very efficiently and takes care of their interests in case of sickness, disablement or death due to employment injuries. It has its headquarters at New Delhi and has 23 regional offices, 26 sub-regional offices in the various states and about 800 local offices all over the country to support the ESI scheme. This is a very reputed Govt scheme and many people have been benefited by it.
Under this scheme complete medical care is provided if the employee who is a member of this scheme falls ill till his health is restored to working abilities. Compensation for wages during absence from duty, maternity period in case of female members etc is provided to the eligible members. Presently there are about 3.2 crore employees who are enrolled under this scheme and as per the data available about more than 13 crore members cumulatively till today have taken benefit of this scheme in one way or other. The benefits could be either in cash or in form of medical care.

Each member (employee) has to contribute 3.25% of the salary every month towards this and employer has to add 0.75 % of the salary every month from its side and that would go to the ESI Corporation from the employers end. Employer has to deposit this amount within 15 days of the salary payment.

Employees State Insurance Scheme has been devised to benefit the employees having an income less than Rs 21,000/-per month for their treatment in case they fall ill and the entire expenses are to be covered by the ESI corporation. This Corporation has the support of the Central Government and this organisation is known as ESIC.
This organisation takes care of all the members having meagre incomes such as employees of Newspapers, Working in Transportation companies or working as Maids in some schools run privately and other disadvantaged members.
This organisation has several hospitals offering medical treatments relating to their disease and other related expenses and if required they may be referred to other hospitals for the treatment and even if the expenses are beyond the reach of the members, the entire amount would be borne by ESIC.
Female members would be covered all the matrimonial benefits apart from the free delivery expenses and other medical assistance to the newly born baby.
There is also the pension benefits for his wife if the member dies prematurely. Pension amount would be fixed by the ESIC. There is also the benefit of getting cash in case of disability providing them cash benefits up to a certain period.
The contributions from the employee side is 3.25 percent of their monthly salary apart from 0.75 percent month from their employers. The entire corpus goes to ESIC and is credited to the account of the members.
ESIC is a large organisation having its membership of over 3.2 crores at present and this figure would surge further with the time.