Bokaro: Prime Minister Narendra Modi may visit Jharkhand on 25 September to launch ‘Ayushman Bharat’ the world largest health protection scheme on the birth anniversary of Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay, said Raghubar Das chief minister Jharkhand speaking on the foundation stone laying ceremony of Bokaro Airport on Saturday.
Ayushman Bharat- National Health Protection Scheme, is the flagship project of our Prime Minister, which will cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families which approximately 50 crore beneficiaries, providing coverage up to 5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation, Das said.
It is an entitlement based scheme with entitlement decided on the basis of deprivation criteria in the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) database. The beneficiaries can avail benefits in both public as well as empanelled private hospitals. To control costs, the payments for treatment will be done on the package rate (to be defined by the Government in advance) basis.
All total 68 lakhs residents of Jharkhand would be proposed to get the benefits of the scheme, said Das. “Initially 57 lakhs residents will get the benefits of the scheme free-of-cost while rest 11 lakh residents belong to APL families will get its benefits later. They will have to contribute some amount,” he added.
The central government will pay 60 per cent amount while the state government will pay 40 per cent amount under this National Health Protection Scheme for the BPL or poor and vulnerable families. For the APL families they will entitle for the benefits after paying their contribution amount which yet to be decided, said CM.
It would subsume the on-going centrally sponsored schemes – Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and the Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS).
Aiming to ensure that nobody is left out especially women, children and elderly people there will be no cap on family size and age in ‘Ayushman Bharat’ scheme, said a district administration official. “The benefits cover will also include pre and post-hospitalisation expenses. All pre-existing conditions will be covered from day one of the policy. A defined transport allowance per hospitalization will also be paid to the beneficiary,” he added.
Benefits of this scheme are portable across the country and a beneficiary covered under the scheme will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public or private empanelled hospitals across the country, he informed.
