In a move that could give a big boost to accessibility of critical medical care for the poor, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the launch of a flagship National Health Protection Scheme to cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries). The scheme provides coverage up to ₹5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.
“This will be the world’s largest government funded health care programme. Adequate funds will be provided for smooth implementation of this programme,” Jaitley said while announcing the Budget for 2018-19 on Thursday.
The FM increased the education and health cess from 3 to 4 per cent to provide adequate resources for the scheme.
The details of how the beneficiaries would be identified and the agencies involved in the implementation of the flagship scheme are yet to be specified.
Jaitley said that the scheme had been formulated as the present Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), which provides annual coverage of only ₹30,000 to poor families, is not adequate cover.
Wellness Centres, nutritional support
The FM also committed ₹1,200 crore for the flagship programme National Health Policy 2017. It envisages setting up of 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres to provide comprehensive health care, including for non-communicable diseases and maternal and child health services. These centres will also provide free essential drugs and diagnostic services.
An additional allocation of ₹600 crore to provide nutritional support to all TB patients at the rate of ₹500 per month for the duration of their treatment was also announced.
The Centre will be setting up 24 new government medical colleges and hospitals by upgrading existing district hospitals in the country. “This would ensure that there is at least one medical college for every three Parliamentary constituencies and at least one government medical college in each state of the country,” the FM said.