The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the launch of Ayushman Bharat — National Health Protection Mission.
The Cabinet nod to the politically sensitive scheme showed that the Government would like to implement it in time to turn into a big plank in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
“The scheme has the benefit cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year. The target beneficiaries of the proposed scheme will be more than 10 crore families belonging to poor and vulnerable population based on SECC database.
“AB-NHPM will subsume the ongoing Centrally-sponsored schemes — Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and the Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS),” an official statement read.
The scheme that was highlighted in the Union Budget as the world biggest healthcare scheme, is aimed at benefitting 10 crore poor families by providing coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. “This will be the world’s largest Government funded healthcare programme. Adequate funds will be provided for smooth implementation of this programme,” Finance minister Arun Jaitley said while presenting the Budget for 2018-19, and committing Rs 1,200 crore towards the mission.
Through this scheme, the Government aims to increase the benefit cover to nearly 40 per cent of the population, mostly the poor and vulnerable sections.
The beneficiaries can avail benefits in both public and empanelled private facilities. To control costs, the payments for treatment will be done on package rate (to be defined by the Government in advance) basis.