Health protection scheme to be launched in a big way: Centre

The Centre today said the ambitious health protection scheme, which was announced in this year's budget, will be launched in a "big" way in 2017-18 and is expected to benefit 8 crore families.
Union Health Minister J P Nadda said Rs 1,500 crore has been kept for this year, which will be utilised for making the system digital and cashless. Deprieved families under the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) will get its benefit, he added.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while presenting the budget 2016-17, said the government will launch a new health protection scheme that will provide health cover upto Rs one lakh per family.

Citizens, who are 60 years of age and above, will get an additional top-up package upto Rs 30,000, he had announced.
"Rs 1,500 crore has been kept this year for health protection scheme. This will be launched in a big way during 2017-18. It will incur an annual expenditure of Rs 4,500-5,000 crore when it starts.
"Around eight crore families will benefit from this scheme. The scheme will basically be cashless and digitally managed. To establish the system digitally, Rs 1,500 crore will be utilized this year," Nadda said.
Elaborating further about the scheme, Nadda said the coverage under the scheme there will no restrictions on the number of members in a particular family.

"All persons above the 60 years will also be getting Rs 30,000 extra coverage. It will be on a yearly basis," he said.