50 days of Ayushman Bharat: 200,000 benefit; states okay claims of Rs 3 bn

Fifty days since the launch of Ayushman Bharat on September 25, 200,000 beneficiaries have already availed of treatment; 500,000 health cards have been distributed to date. Senior government officials say letters are being sent in regional languages to beneficiaries to espouse the notion of universal health care.

Claims worth Rs 17 billion have been received across the country. Of this, Rs 3 billion worth of claims have been approved by various states, inform government sources. 

“Most claims are from Maharashtra, West Bengal, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (UP), and Chhattisgarh,” says a senior government official. UP has registered the maximum cases, with 2,300 beneficiaries availing of the scheme in the first 50 days of its launch in Ranchi. He says Bihar still has the least number of hospitals - the state has empanelled only nine private hospitals. 

The scheme aims at providing tertiary health care of up to Rs 500,000 for 500 million people. While Ayushman Bharat will provide health care for those listed in the socio-economic caste census, states are also adding beneficiaries below the poverty threshold. For these BPL beneficiaries, the states will bear the premium. 

For the new flagship scheme, the total annual requirement is Rs 120 billion. This will make it the largest health scheme ever in India in terms of yearly expenditure. This will be from 2019-20, the first full year for the scheme.

For this fiscal year (2018-19), the health ministry has projected a total expenditure of Rs 60 billion, of which 60 per cent will come from the Centre and 40 per cent from the states. This compares to Rs 20 billion allocated in the Budget by the Centre. For the approaching fiscal years, the total cost would go up to Rs 120 billion.