Modi govt to hike allocation for Ayushman Bharat healthcare scheme

As the Union Health Ministry ramps up Ayushman Bharat for a September 25 launch, it is projecting the new flagship scheme’s total annual requirement at Rs 120 billion, which 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, the health ministry has projected a total expenditure of Rs 60 billion, from 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. The states had no budgeted amount for this scheme.

As far as just the budgetary support is concerned, the health ministry sources said that it has sought an additional amount of Rs 20 billion from the finance ministry’s expenditure department. 

"We need at least Rs 60 billion combined from the Centre and states to fund the scheme for five months this year. For the next year, the total requirement will be Rs 120 billion, of which 60 per cent will be paid by the central government,” said a senior health ministry official.

Earlier, the government had felt that it would be able to pay its share with the inflow from the education and health cess over and above the budgetary support.

Now, however, the health ministry feels that it needs more funds to pay the Centre’s share in the mega scheme. Finance ministry officials have told Business Standard that the amount sought will be paid. The scheme will be launched on September 25 this year.

The new scheme has now been named Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. The name itself has seen a number of changes from Ayushman Bharat to Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyan to Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.

This scheme will operate on two models: Insurance Model and Trust Model.

Under the Insurance model, insurance companies are empaneled to operate as part of the scheme and they bid to provide insurance cover to those eligible under the scheme. A trust model is wherein a state sets up a trust and allocates funds to it. The money is then transferred from the trust to the hospitals directly.

Most states have opted for the trust model. Where the insurance model has been opted for, premium varies from Rs 444 to a few thousands, across states. 

The scheme will provide tertiary care to all those who feature in the social economic cast Census 2011. They can avail this scheme up to Rs 500,000. Officials said that 100 million families are eligible for the scheme.