NEW DELHI: Families covered by the national health insurance scheme will be eligible to avail benefits under the new Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) even if they do not figure in the Socio Economic Caste Census database, Parliament has been informed.
The government, through the AB-NHPM, aims to provide coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually to over 10 crore poor households. The National Health Agency (NHA) is the apex body for implementation of the insurance scheme. The combined budgetary allocation for the AB-NHPM is Rs 2,000 crore and the contribution towards premium between the Centre and state is in the 60:40 ratio in all states except northeastern and three Himalayan states where it is 90:10, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey has informed the Rajya Sabha.
The Centre’s contribution of premium is proposed to be 100 per cent in Union Territories without legislature, while it is 60:40 for those with legislature. The government has approved that beneficiary families under the AB-NHPM will be identified by applying the deprivation criteria and will automatically include households in rural areas and those under the defined 11 occupational categories for urban areas in the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) database.
“The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) beneficiary families which are not in SECC data base will also be eligible for benefit under Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission,” he said. Replying to a question, Choubey said 1,350 procedures covering specialty such as cardiology, ophthalmology, orthopedic, urology, obstetrics, gynecology, neurosurgery, general surgery, oncology, pediatric surgery, mental disorders packages have been listed in the benefit package for the AB-NHPM. PTI
