Ayushman Bharat: Jharkhand plans to bring entire population under scheme

Ayushman Bharat Yojana: If implemented, Jharkhand could become the country’s first state to provide health insurance cover to all its residents under the scheme.

The Jharkhand government plans to include all households under the Centre’s flagship scheme Ayushman Bharat, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch from Ranchi on Sunday.

If implemented, it could become the country’s first state to provide health insurance cover to all its residents, senior health officials said on Friday after the government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Insurance Company Ltd (NICL) to provide medical facilities to the people of the state under Ayushman Bharat Yojana.

The health insurance scheme will cover 57 lakh families of the state who are enrolled under National Food Security Act. However, the Raghubar Das government is contemplating to add remaining 11 lakh families, who are not enrolled under NFSA, to the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), said state health minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi.

“Out of 10.74 crore families in the country, the centre has selected 25 lakh families from Jharkhand through the socio-economic caste census (SECC)-2011 data under the scheme,” Chandravanshi said.

Centre, State to share cost

The Centre would finance 60% and the state would contribute 40% for the health insurance of these 25 lakh families.

“Jharkhand is probably the first state which has decided to include 32 lakh more families, enrolled under NFSA, under the scheme. The state will bear entire financial burden of these families, which would be around Rs 540 crore,” the health minister added.

Chandravanshi said the government was drafting modalities to include remaining 11 lakh families of the state under the scheme.

“Since these families are not financially weak, they would have to bear a certain cost of premium to avail the benefit of the scheme. With this, all 68 lakh families of the state would be covered under the ambitious scheme,” said the minister.

Hybrid model

The state government has chosen hybrid-model of the scheme in which health cover of Rs 1 lakh would be disbursed through the government approved insurance company. Health claim of above Rs 1 lakh and up to Rs 5 lakh would be disbursed through trust mode by the implementation support agency-Jharkhand State Aarogya Society (JSAS).

The National Insurance Company Limited was earlier servicing Jharkhand’s Mukhya Mantri Swasthya Bima Yojana (MSBY) which has now been merged with Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (PMJAY).

“Health care facility up to Rs 1 lakh would be provided by us. Annual insurance burden on each family would be Rs 900, which would be paid by the government in three instalments,” said NICL’s chief regional manager DS Pente.

Facilities for patients

He said portability is the major difference between MSBY and PMJAY. With rolling out of Ayushman Bharat, patient would have the facility to get treatment from any empanelled hospital in the country, which was not available with the MSBY.

Jharkhand health secretary Nidhi Khare said the department has received 603 applications from the private hospitals for empanelment under Ayushman Bharat. “We have so far empanelled 280 hospitals. All government hospitals which have facility up to 10 beds would be deemed empanelled.”

Letters are being sent to all beneficiary families on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The scheme will cover 1350 packages over 23 surgical and medical specialties. The beneficiaries are also entitled to get treatment in any empanelled hospital.