EAC-PM brainstorms over world's largest health protection scheme

The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) on Monday discussed possible modalities for implementing the world's largest health protection scheme announced in the Union Budget, said an official release.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his Budget Speech on February 1, had announced that the government would launch a flagship 'National Health Protection Scheme' to cover over 10 crore households (about 50 crore people) by providing annual coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per family for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.

"Keeping in view the national health scheme announced by the government in the Budget for the year 2018-19 presented in Parliament on February 1, 2018, the EAC-PM discussed the possible modalities of implementing the scheme," said a release.

The mega scheme is likely to be launched either on August 15 or October 2.

It was the 4th EAC-PM meeting, chaired by Bibek Debroy, Member, NITI Aayog.

The release further said that Shamika Ravi, part-time member of the EAC-PM, made a presentation on health reforms.

Another part-time member of the EAC-PM, Ashima Goyal, made presentation on the draft 'The Indian Fiscal - Monetary Framework: Dominance or Coordination?'.

Poonam Gupta, Lead Economist - India, World Bank, made a presentation on 'World Bank Report on Indian Economy'.