NHA to roll out India’s health insurance scheme in Delhi after new govt’s approval
New Delhi: A day after the recently formed Delhi government approved implementation of the Union government’s health assurance scheme, the National Health Authority is all set to roll it out, providing insurance coverage of ₹10 lakh per eligible family in the national capital.
The Delhi government has approved a decision to join the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) to provide an annual health cover of ₹5 lakh with a top-up of another ₹5 lakh to the poor and vulnerable families, NHA joint secretary Kiran Gopal Vaska said on Friday.
“Delhi government officials have already approached the NHA and we are working on onboarding Delhi into the scheme. This includes preparing beneficiary information and integrating hospitals that were previously empanelled directly by the NHA. These hospitals will now be part of Delhi’s state empanelment,” said Vaska, who is also the mission director of NHA’s Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.
“As what we call wallet sequencing in our IT system, the initial ₹5 lakhs will be given by the Centre while the rest ₹5 lakhs will be given by the Delhi government. We are working on how it has to be processed,” he said.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Central and the Delhi governments to officially launch the scheme is expected soon, Vaska said.
“Training for Ayushman Card creation and backend preparations for claim submissions have started and both the Central and State government teams are working together to complete these preparations at the earliest, ensuring the scheme is launched as soon as possible to benefit poor and vulnerable families in Delhi,” he added.
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India’s pursuit of health
A meeting chaired by the secretary of health and family welfare and the chairman of the state health society (Delhi) was called on 17 February to discuss the execution of five critical Ayushman Bharat initiatives: PM-JAY, health and wellness centres, Ayushman Bharat Infrastructure Mission Scheme, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, and the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana.
In the meeting, PM-JAY’s mission director emphasised the need to enroll at least 100,000 beneficiaries under the scheme within 30 days of its approval by the Union Cabinet.
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Launched on 23 September, 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, AB PM-JAY is a key initiative in India’s pursuit of Universal Health Coverage.
As a vital part of the Ayushman Bharat programme, introduced under the National Health Policy 2017, PM-JAY aims to cover over 120 million families, or nearly 550 million individuals, which would make it the world’s largest health assurance scheme.
PM-JAY provides comprehensive secondary and tertiary care hospitalization benefits of up to ₹5 lakh per family annually.
The Union government recently expanded PM-JAY coverage for all individuals aged 70 years and above. This decision ensures coverage of up to ₹5 lakh per family, irrespective of income, benefiting about 60 million senior citizens across 45 million families.
In all, more than 354 million Ayushman cards have been issued, providing millions of individuals across India with essential health coverage. Currently, PM-JAY operates in 34 states and Union territories. With Delhi set to implement the scheme, the only state left to roll out PM-JAY is West Bengal.
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