Cabinet approves National Health Protection Mission ‘Ayushman Bharat’
Bharat; the scheme will see over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families in the country getting health cover worth 5 lakh rupees.
Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday has approved launch of a new Centrally Sponsored Ayushman Bharat.
The scheme has the benefit cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year. The target beneficiaries of the proposed scheme will be more than 10 crore families belonging to poor and vulnerable population based on SECC database.
Cabinet also approves moving of official amendments in Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016.
Union Cabinet has also approved the continuation of the National Health Mission – with effect from 1st April 2017 to 31st March 2020 with a budgetary support of Rs. 85,217 crore as Central Share over this period.
Cabinet has also approved continuation of the Prime Minister’s Development Package for Jammu & Kashmir 2015 – “Stepping up of support under creation of Infrastructure in District Hospitals, Sub-district Hospitals and Primary Health Centers over 5 years” – with effect from 1st April 2017 to 31st March 2020 with a budgetary support of Rs. 625.20 crores as total centrally-funded scheme.
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval for Central Sector Scheme “Integrated Scheme for Development of Silk Industry” for the next three years from 2017-18 to 2019-20. The Scheme has four components –
1. Research & Development (R&D), Training, Transfer of Technology and IT Initiatives
2. Seed Organizations and farmers extension centres
3. Coordination and Market Development for seed, yarn and silk products and
4. Quality Certification System by creating amongst others a chain of Silk Testing facilities, Farm based & post-cocoon Technology Up-gradation, and Export Brand Promotion.
A total allocation of Rs.2161.68 Crore has been approved for the implementation of the Scheme for three years from 2017-18 to 2019-20.
Cabinet has also approved the North East Industrial Development Scheme (NEIDS), 2017 with financial outlay of Rs.3000 crores upto March, 2020. Government will provide necessary allocations for remaining period of scheme after assessment before March 2020. NEIDS is a combination of the incentives covered under the earlier two schemes with a much larger outlay.
Ayushman Bharat – world’s biggest health protection scheme
All groundwork has been laid by the govt for rolling out its ambitious National Health Protection Scheme Ayushman Bharat. 10 crore poor and vulnerable families will get a medical cover of 5 lakh rupees to take care of their health. A little over 6 weeks after its announcement, the govt has prepared nearly 1,300 packages for providing free health care to over 50 crore people in the country.
Finance Minister Arun Jailey had made the announcement of the world’s most ambitious health care scheme during his budget speech on the 1st of February.
The govt will contribute 60% of the expenses for the scheme. The rest will come from states. The figure will be 90% North-East and hill states and 100% for all union territories. An authority will also be constituted to regulate the scheme’s implementation. Hospitals will treat and then get re-imbursed.
According to the scheme, the work of appointing a special nodal officer and identifying beneficiaries on the of basis socio-economic and caste data has been assigned. The families will be linked to Aadhar database through which they will get their reimbursement directly in their bank accounts.
Apart from this, the govt will also start 24 govt medical colleges and hospitals by upgrading existing district level govt hospitals. This scheme will see at least 1 medical college come up in every 3 Lok Sabha constituencies or one in each district.
