A decent start to Ayushman Bharat but tough challenges lie ahead

The Centre's ambitious insurance scheme to provide secondary and tertiary health care saw the light of day in September 2018. A Rs 500,000-insurance cover scheme was rolled out for those who feature in the socio-economic caste census as against an earlier plan of a Rs 100,000-scheme. Ayushman Bharat will provide health care insurance cover for 500 mn people. But there have been teething issues, such as difficulties in on-boarding govt hospitals. A study by India Infoline suggested that according to early estimates, govt spend per admission is in the range of Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000, while private hospitals’ revenues