Ayushman Bharat: Govt plans to rope in private firms to bring their eligible employees under health care scheme

The government plans to rope in the huge employee base of big private firms to bring them under the cover of its ambitious health care plan, Ayushman Bharat, said a media report. Accordingly, as many as 21 private firms have been identified for negotiations to obtain permission for getting eligible employees registered in the Ayushman Bharat health care scheme, said a report in Business Standard. As an initial move towards this, Ayushman Bharat has inked a pact with Uber India for offering health cover to its deserving driver-partners after identifying them, said the report. [caption id=“attachment_5280511” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) in September last year, reported PTI. The insurance scheme aims to provide an annual health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. The programme will benefit about 10 crore poor households, or 50 crore people. The scheme is estimated to cost about ₹ 12,000 crore annually. “It will cover 1,300 illnesses, including serious illnesses such as cancer and heart disease, and pre-existing illnesses. Private hospitals, too, will be part of this scheme. The amount of Rs 5 lakh will cover investigations, medicine and pre-hospitalisation expenses, etc.," Modi had said during the launch of the health care scheme. Last month, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal had said the government might provide more funds for Ayushman Bharat next year. In the last four months of its launch, the scheme has already benefited over 10 lakh people, he said. “The government has already provided half-a-billion dollar funding for the programme. We expect to provide much more funds in the next year,” he said. The interim Budget presented last week has raised the allocation for Ayushman Bharat scheme to Rs 6,400 crore for 2019-2020. Improvement of infrastructure of health care also opens up huge opportunities for companies around the world to participate in effort to expand the health care system, he said. In January this year, the railway ministry had said that its hospitals across the country would soon provide treatment to eligible families under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. The the apex body implementing the insurance programme, National Health Authority (NHA), had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Railways in this regard. As per the MoU, identified medical establishments having inpatient hospitalisations under the Ministry’s Railway Health Services department across its 16 zones will be empanelled with the PMJAY to implement the scheme. — With PTI inputs