Ayushman Bharat gets Cabinet nod

​New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the launch of Ayushman Bharat -National Health Protection Mission (NHPM) at a budgetary support of Rs 852.17 billion. The scheme, launched during the recent Union Budget, has the benefit cover of Rs 5,00,000 per family per year.

The Cabinet also approved continuation of the National Health Mission. In the budget, the government had also announced two major initiatives in the health sector as part of the Ayushman Bharat programme – creation of health and wellness centres and the National Health Protection Scheme. 

Recently, the government has also launched a digital competition to design the logo and tagline for the Ayushman Bharat programme. World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also lauded the National Health Protection Scheme and Ayushman Bharat initiative, saying they have the potential of transforming the lives of hundreds of millions of Indians.

Ayushman Bharat -NHPM will subsume the on-going centrally sponsored schemes -Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and the Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS). This cover will take care of almost all secondary care and most of tertiary care procedures. 

To ensure that nobody is left out (especially women, children and elderly) there will be no cap on family size and age in the scheme. The benefit cover will also include pre and post-hospitalisation expenses.

This programme aims to address health holistically, impacting primary, secondary and tertiary care systems, covering both prevention and health promotion.