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

‘Better than the entire world’: Here’s the ‘India book’ for ages

The Undying Light: A Personal History of Independent India By Gopalkrishna Gandhi Aleph Books, 624 pages, Rs 999 Vet

Why the youth’s ‘affair’ with stock market is usually tragic

Nine out of 10 individual traders in the equity Futures and Options (F&O) segment have incurred net losses, according to a recent SEBI study. What’s even more striking is that a significant portion of these traders are young individuals – students, early professionals and first-time earners

Why recognizing unpaid work makes sense

Across the globe, unpaid domestic and caregiving work remains an unseen yet essential contributor to economic and social well-being. Women, in particular, dedicate significant hours to household tasks and caregiving, yet this labour remains excluded from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) calculations, leading t

News broadcast needs to reinvent, innovate: Sudhir Chaudhary

Popular news anchor and veteran journalist Sudhir Chaudhary says the news broadcast industry has not reinvented itself in the last 20 years, leading to news consumption gradually shifting to other platforms. Unlike social media influencers with millions of followers, there are no stars in the news industry

How education can transform lives — and society

The Moving of Mountains: The Remarkable Story of The Agastya International Foundation By Adhirath Sethi Penguin Enterprise

What the sharp change in South Asian geopolitics means for India

More than a week after the chief adviser of Bangladesh’s interim government, Muhammad Yunus, created a ripple in South Asia by asking China to expand its economic base in his country as it is “the only guardian of the ocean” for India’s seven landlocked northeastern states, New Delh