Budget 2024: Health cover under Ayushman Bharat scheme will be extended to ASHA, Anganwadi workers, says FM Sitharaman

The Government of India Thursday said it will extend health cover under the Ayushman Bharat scheme to all ASHA and Anganwadi workers and helpers. The announcement was made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha while tabling Budget 2024. “The health cover under the Ayushman Bharat scheme will be extended to all ASHA and Anganwadi workers and helpers,” Sitharaman said during her Union Budget 2024-25 speech.

VIDEO | "Ayushman Bharat: Healthcare cover under Ayushman Bharat Scheme will be extended to all Asha workers, all Anganwadi workers and helpers. Agriculture and Food Processing: The efforts of value addition in agriculture sector and boosting farmers' incomes will be stepped up.… pic.twitter.com/cBrOTjTQez

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The Finance Minister further said all maternal and child healthcare schemes will be brought under one comprehensive scheme. Furthermore, the Indian government is enhancing the target for Lakhpati Didi scheme to Rs 3 crore from Rs 2 crore, Sitharaman said. Ayushman Bharat is National Health Protection Scheme aims to provide cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) providing coverage upto 5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. Ayushman Bharat subsumes the centrally sponsored schemes - Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and the Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS). Accredited Social Health Activist, or ASHA, workers are trained female community health activist who selected from the village itself and are empowered with knowledge and a drug-kit to deliver first-contact healthcare to people. Every ASHA worker is expected to be a fountainhead of community participation in public health programmes in her village. ASHA workers are health activist in the community who create awareness on health and its social determinants and mobilise the community towards local health planning and increased utilisation and accountability of the existing health services. An ASHA worker is a promoter of good health practices and provides a minimum package of curative care as appropriate and feasible for that level and make timely referrals. ASHA workers also provide information to the community on determinants of health such as nutrition, basic sanitation and hygienic practices, healthy living and working conditions, information on existing health services and the need for timely utilisation of health and family welfare services. She also counsel women on birth preparedness, importance of safe delivery, breast-feeding and complementary feeding, immunisation, contraception and prevention of common infections including Reproductive Tract Infection/Sexually Transmitted Infections (RTIs/STIs) and care of the young child. With inputs from agencies