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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | RSBY: UPA's flagship, opposition's pride by Vikas Dhoot

RSBY: UPA's flagship, opposition's pride by Vikas Dhoot

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published Published on Mar 19, 2011   modified Modified on Mar 19, 2011
The World Bank and the United Nations have hailed it as one of the best health insurance schemes around the globe. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's Budget called this UPA flagship, the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), an 'effective instrument' for providing basic health cover to the poor.

Yet, UPA-ruled states have virtually disowned the scheme - just 11% of the scheme's Rs 2.31 crore active beneficiaries are in UPA-run territories, an ET analysis found.

Opposition-ruled states, led by Bihar, Kerala, Gujarat and West Bengal, account for the rest - and have successfully milked the UPA scheme and the Centre's funds for potential electoral gains. High health care costs are the primary reason for pushing households into poverty in India.

Four of the fourteen non-UPA ruled states have covered over 75% of their poor citizens under the RSBY, which insures families for healthcare costs up to Rs 30,000 per year. Eight states have covered over 60% of citizens below the poverty line (BPL).

Barring Manipur, none of the UPA states that have adopted the RSBY have covered even half their poor. The 13 states governed by UPA and seven union territories, directly administered by the Centre, have enrolled a mere 25 lakh households or 11% of the scheme's beneficiaries.

"Regardless of who is running the show, in states like Bihar, Gujarat and Delhi, where I have seen the RSBY's ground-level operations, the poor have embraced it as healthcare is a priority worry for them," said National Advisory Council member Mirai Chatterjee, who is surprised with the numbers.

The NAC had explicitly told the government that the proposed Food Security law would amount to throwing food down the drain if the poor don't get better healthcare cover, safe water and sanitation.

Maybe the lethargy in claiming credit for its own scheme stems from a lack of political ownership, with most speeches by the Congress leadership dwelling on the more expensive flagship - Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (MGNREGS).

But Opposition-ruled states have seized the opportunity RSBY presents. Chief ministers of states like Orissa, Chhatisgarh and Uttarakhand personally review the scheme, whose biometric smart cards with an operational IT infrastructure are viewed as an effective targeting tool when most poverty schemes suffer from leakages and beneficiary frauds.

Kerala has extended the scheme to people above the poverty line as well as those who are not part of the Centre's BPL list. Himachal Pradesh has raised the benefits under the scheme to Rs 1.75 lakh by topping up premium payments from its own pocket. In Uttarakhand, benefits beyond Rs 30,000 have been linked to the CM's relief fund.

Karnataka and Chhatisgarh have decided to extend the scheme to all districts. Orissa has decided to ride the scheme's biometric smart cards to deliver benefits under the public distribution system more effectively.

By contrast, key Congress states like Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh are yet to even adopt the four-year old scheme - both have schemes of their own that are draining resources without improving healthcare coverage for the poor.

The Economic Times, 19 March, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/rsby-upas-flagship-oppositions-pride/articleshow/7740370.cms


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