He called it "historic", "revolutionary" and a "bold step" by the government, and thanked PM Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah too. However, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J.P. Nadda refused to share details about the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHPS) – the world's largest of its kind – announced yesterday by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the government's last full budget before elections.
At a post budget press briefing, Nadda responded to questions about the scheme's financial aspects merely by assuring journalists that the government was "committed" to fulfilling its promises, and that the Centre had "worked out" the money required for it as well. "We will come up with the details of the scheme very soon... once the scheme is rolled out. All the finances have been worked out," he said.
Under the scheme, there will be 50 crore beneficiaries of the scheme, 10 crore families would be covered for Rs 5 lakh per year for secondary and tertiary care. These families will be identified through the social economic caste census, 2011, Nadda added.
However, at a press briefing held at the NITI Aayog, it was announced that the scheme would cost Rs 10,000-12,000 crore per year, and the premium per family would be around Rs 1000-1200. The scheme would be launched on October 2, and the Centre hopes to cover 50 per cent of the beneficiaries by next year, depending on states' acceptance.
The required budget for the scheme would be Rs 5,000-6,000 crore, with the Centre already having earmarked Rs 2,000 crore in the current budget for it. Additional funds would be generated through health and education cess, that has been hiked from 3 per cent to 4 per cent, in the budget. It is estimated by the NITI Aayog that the scheme would plough back Rs 2,500 crore into public health facilities. The scheme will be paperless, cashless, and Aadhaar-linked, and there will be no cap on family size. However, those without Aadhaar number will not be denied eligibility.
Responding to questions on implemention of the scheme, Preeti Sudan, secretary, Union ministry of health and family welfare said that states were free to choose out of the two models – the insurance model in Rajasthan or the trust-based model as in Karnataka. "The Rashtriya Swasthya Bhima Yojana (current insurance scheme that is being run in several states) has succeeded in states such as Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. We recommend the trust-based model, but states would have to decide. States would be contributing 40 per cent of the funds required," she explained. The RSBY would be subsumed under the NHPS, once the new scheme is launched, she said. Sudan also added that the Centre was working with the MIT to develop a software that would prevent fraud in the scheme's implementation.
Each year, six to seven crore people fall into poverty because of ailments. India has one of the highest out-of-pocket expenditures in healthcare in the world.
