Ayushman Bharat Yojana-National Health Protection Mission (Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyaan)

Ayushman Bharat Yojana or National Health Protection Mission (Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyaan)

• Salient Features:
• The scheme is also called ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyaan’ and is tagged as ‘Modicare’.
• Ayushman Bharat Yojana is a National Health Protection Scheme launched on September 25, 2018, by the Central government as part of health policy 2017.
• The scheme will subsume the centrally sponsored schemes-Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and the Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS).

CEO : Indu Bhushan has been appointed as a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ayushman Scheme. Dr Dinesh Arora is the Deputy CEO of Ayushman Bharat Yojana

• Aim: The scheme has two goals.
  • One is to create a network of health and wellness infrastructure across the nation to deliver comprehensive primary healthcare services.
  • The other goal is providing insurance cover to at least 40 percent of India’s population which is majorly deprived of secondary and tertiary care services

• Components: It consists of two major elements
  • National Health Protection Scheme: to provide cashless treatment to patients
  • Wellness Centres: to provide primary care to the patients. In fact, the government will upgrade existing Public Health Centres to Wellness Centres. The Budget has allocated Rs.1200 crore for this flagship programme.

These two health sector initiatives under Ayushman Bharat Programme will build a New India 2022 and ensure enhanced productivity, well being and avert wage loss and impoverishment. 

• Insurance Cover: Under this scheme, around 10 crore poor families will be provided an insurance cover of Rs. 5 lakh every year.
  • The beneficiaries will undergo cashless treatment at all the government and private empanelled hospitals across the country for the secondary and most tertiary care procedures.
  • Ayushman Bharat – National Health Protection Mission will target about 10.74 crore poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational category of urban workers’ families as per the latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data covering both rural and urban.

• Implementation Strategy: 
  • National Level – At the national level, it is proposed to set up Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission Council (AB-NHPMC) chaired by Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, for giving policy directions and fostering coordination between Centre and States.
  • State Level – States/ UTs would be advised to implement the scheme by a dedicated entity called State Health Agency (SHA). They can either use an existing Trust/ Society/ Not for Profit Company/ State Nodal Agency (SNA) or set up a new entity to implement the scheme.
  • States/ UTs can decide to implement the scheme through an insurance company or directly through the Trust/ Society or use an integrated model.
  • In partnership with NITI Aayog, a robust, modular, scalable and interoperable IT platform will be made operational to make the process paperless and cashless.

One Liner Questions Based on the Scheme

1. The National Health Protection Scheme is also named as______? 
2. When was the scheme launched?
3. The Ayushman scheme will subsume which central schemes?
4. Who is the CEO of the scheme?
5. Flagship programmes of the scheme? Components of the scheme
6. What is the insurance cover under the scheme?
7. Who will head the AB-NHPMC formed at national level to implement the scheme?
8. Which entity is needed to be formed by states and UTs for the implementation of the scheme?
9. What is the target of beneficiaries set by the government to cover under the scheme?
10. Govt will partner which entity to make the process cashless?

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