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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Will Ayushman Bharat Lead to Universal Health Coverage for India? -Subhojit Dey

Will Ayushman Bharat Lead to Universal Health Coverage for India? -Subhojit Dey

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published Published on Aug 20, 2018   modified Modified on Aug 20, 2018
-TheWire.in

The Ayushman Bharat scheme provides support to the most deprived portion of India’s population and engages private insurance players, positive steps that must be welcomed.

In his speech on the 72nd Independence Day this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi remarked that India’s economy, once a sleeping elephant is now running. The same cannot, however be said about the healthcare system of India. This elephant is malnourished, weak, diseased and lumbering at a pace which is costing India more than 6% GDP every year to preventable diseases and premature deaths. It also pushes an astounding 66 lakh households and 55 crore people into poverty each year. Therefore, the declaration by Modi about the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyaan, also known as the Ayushman Bharat – National Health Protection Mission (ABNHPM), on September 25 in the pre-election year, underlines the importance of improving healthcare if India wishes to continue growing economically. But then the question is if ABNHPM is the tool to goad the healthcare elephant of India into a brisk walk (at least)?

ABNHPM is the world’s largest government funded healthcare scheme in terms of coverage. More than 10 crore households and 50 crore people will be included in this scheme for Rs 5 lakh per year insurance that will be provided for secondary and tertiary healthcare. IT-enabled, free and cashless in-patient healthcare will be provided to the people enrolled in ABNHPM. It is expected to increase health insurance coverage in India from the current 34% (43.7 crore people) to 50% (60.2 crore people) as per IRDAI and CRISIL. ABNHPM is also expected to create an additional 200,000 jobs along with increase in the number of public hospitals in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, and improve public health services.

As per the National Health Agency (NHA), the apex body for implementation of ABNHPM, no enrolment or payment of premium is necessary for households to be a part of it. Households have already been chosen as per the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC), 2011 database. The scheme will be merged with existing similar state schemes with a 60:40 contribution by Centre and states respectively. 28 states and union territories are already a part of ABNHPM. With the soft launch on Independence Day, limited pilots have already begun in around 80 districts across 11 states of India (states where phase 1 of ABNHPM will be launched). Around 100 hospitals, mostly public, have begun offering ABNHPM services.

While the NHA has made a lot of efforts to think this through, a number of issues have cropped up for which ABNHPM is facing criticism. A list of issues along with probable solutions has been provided in Table 1 below. One of the main issues is that of budget allocation. While initially, Rs 10,000 crore was expected to be allocated to ABNHPM, as per NHA, there are no caps on funding and the allocation can be increased to as high as Rs 20,000-30,000 crores.

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TheWire.in, 18 August, 2018, https://thewire.in/health/will-ayushman-bharat-lead-to-universal-health-coverage-for-india


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