Cabinet approves national health protection mission -Governance Now

Cabinet approves national health protection mission

The Rs 5 lakh coverage doesn't put restrictions on family size and age

GN Bureau | March 23, 2018

#national health protection mission #health mission #JP Nadda #NHPM

The union cabinet on Thursday approved the centrally sponsored national health protection mission (NHPM) having central sector component under Ayushman Bharat, anchored in the ministry of health and family welfare.

Minister JP Nadda termed the NHPM as a major step towards universal health coverage. It will protect around 50 crore people (from about 10 crore families) from catastrophic healthcare spending.

“This shall boost our resolve to serve the poorest of the poor in the country as there is an increased benefit cover to nearly 40% of the population, covering almost all secondary and many tertiary hospitalizations,” Nadda said.

He said that the coverage of Rs 5 lakh for each family has no restriction of family size and age. “This will give underprivileged families the financial support required when faced with illnesses requiring hospitalization,” he said.

The NHPM will subsume the on-going centrally sponsored scheme Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and senior citizen health insurance scheme (SCHIS). The families belonging to poor and vulnerable population based on socio economic caste census database shall be benefitted through the Ayushman Bharat-NHPM, the ministry said in a statement.

Nadda said that the beneficiaries can avail of the benefits in both public and empanelled private facilities. “All public hospitals in the States implementing Ayushman Bharat-NHPM, will be deemed empanelled for the scheme. As for private hospitals, they will be empanelled online based on defined criteria,” he said.

He said that the Ayushman Bharat-NHPM will leverage on comprehensive primary health care through health and wellness centres for preventive, promotive and curative care and will ensure seamless continuum of care.

He also said that this will avoid overcrowding and improve quality of care at secondary and tertiary facilities and provide universal health coverage and make services equitable, affordable and accessible.

“Various measures like identity validation through Aadhaar, cost control etc., make the Ayushman Bharat-NHPM easily accessible and transparent in approach,”he said.

Nadda said that Ayushman Bharat-NHPM will also strengthen spirit of cooperative federalism. “NHPM provides ease to be merged with the ongoing health protection or insurance schemes in various ministries and governments,” he said.

Under NHPM, all pre-existing conditions will be covered from day one of the policy. A defined transport allowance per hospitalisation will also be paid to the beneficiary. The benefits of the scheme are portable across the country and a beneficiary covered under the mission will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public/private empanelled hospitals across the country, Nadda said.

Comments

Other News

The Xi-Trump summit: The unending rivalry

Diplomacy is akin to an art, wherein the summitry, conflict resolution and negotiations form apt constituents of the entire context of deal making and “playing for keeps” in the international arena. The Xi-Trump summit in Washington last week, in which the American president broke all conside

“Indians, yet treated like outsiders”

Moving to Delhi-NCR for education can be an exciting experience for students from Northeast India. It gives us a chance to meet new people, experience a different culture and become more independent. But living away from home also comes with challenges that people who have not experienced them may not al

Import duty on major edible oils cut

The government has reduced the Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on major imported crude edible oils with a view to moderating domestic edible oil prices, providing relief to consumers and mitigating inflationary pressures arising from the sharp increase in international edible oil prices.

From pyramid to platform: BRICS agenda for Global South

In his opening address at the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on September 12, prime minister Narendra Modi did something India`s diplomacy has been building towards for three years: he moved the ‘Voice of the Global South’ from a slogan to a work plan. Addressing the leaders, he argued that t

How to realise the full transformative potential of PM-JAY

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), a welfare scheme which covers approximately 45 crore beneficiaries across India, provides cashless health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year. It is the largest health insurance scheme which helped crores of poor families by reducing out-of-pocket expend

The missing men in India`s family planning story

Every pregnancy requires two people. Yet India`s family planning programme continues to ask only one of them to bear almost all of its medical consequences. The newly released National Family Health Survey-6 (2023-24) confirms just how entrenched this asymmetry remains: 36.5% of currently married women a