New Delhi: The Centre decided to expand its infamous medical coverage scheme Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana to cover the non-needy populace of the nation. It will likewise incorporate all its different medical coverage plans under AB PM-JAY.
The flagship scheme of the Union government gives credit of cashless cover up to ₹500,000 per family every year for auxiliary and tertiary care hospitalization to over 107.4 million poor and destitute families (around 530 million recipients).
The governing board of National Health Authority (NHA), the executing body of the plan, on Thursday gave a thumbs up to direct insurance pilots for covering ‘the missing centre’ or non-poor population of the country including fluctuated segments, for example, informal sector workers, self-employed, professionals, employees in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs etc that is spread across occupations, geography and income strata, utilizing the AB PM-JAY framework).
Union minister of health and family welfare Harsh Vardhan chaired the meeting aimed at reviewing the implementation of AB PM-JAY.
The Centre said that the insurance pilots for ‘the missing middle’ will help in understanding what works and what doesn’t, the complexities of self-pay covers on voluntary basis — especially for people engaged in informal sector — issues regarding adverse selection, health-seeking behaviour, affordability, reach and distribution, healthcare supply side participation, economies and efficiencies, customer feedback and other mechanisms etc.
Among the significant plan things examined during the gathering was the effect of covid-19 on AB PM-JAY, approaches to determine the difficulties that emerged out of the pandemic in medicinal services conveyance and the presentation of empanelled private human services suppliers in various states as for the pandemic.
The NHA overseeing board endorsed the proposition to coordinate existing wellbeing plans of focal services with AB PM-JAY to representatives including government and authoritative staff and other recipient gatherings, for example, building and development laborers, manual scroungers, street mishap casualties and focal equipped police power work force.
The governing board also gave in-principle approval for implementation of any healthcare scheme for employees including government employees and other beneficiaries extended by central ministries/ departments/ PSUs/ Autonomous bodies, based on their request, to be implemented on a common Ayushman Bharat platform.