April 2, 2018
The government is keen to launch the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM), dubbed ‘Modicare’ and deemed the world’s largest public funded health insurance scheme, before 15 August, which is Independence Day in India.
Last week, Health Minister JP Nadda said the government planned to complete all pre-launch activities, including testing of the information technology systems for the AB-NHPM, by the end of July. The AB-NHPM, when it kicks-in, will subsume two on-going centrally sponsored schemes, the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and the Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS).
The health insurance scheme, announced in the national Budget in February, aims to provide coverage of up to INR500,000 (US$7,700) to over 100 million poor families or 500 million people. This cover will take care of almost all secondary care and most tertiary care procedures. There is no cap on family size and age in the scheme, ensuring that nobody is left out. The insurance scheme also covers pre and post-hospitalisation expenses. All pre-existing conditions will be covered from Day One. Furthermore, beneficiaries will also be paid a defined transport allowance per hospitalisation.
The programme will require an estimated INR100 billion for the next two financial years starting 1 April 2018 and both the Centre and the various state governments will pay for the scheme.