WHO DG applauds Ayushman Bharat’s successful 100 days

On the completion of 100 days, Ayushman Bharat scheme launched by Modi government has been receiving appreciations worldwide. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General has applauded PM Modi and Union Health Minister J P Nadda for their visionary and exemplary leadership. Around seven lakh people have availed benefits of Ayushman Bharat in its initial 100 days of implementation.  

Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted, “In its first 100 days, #India’s ambitious #AyushmanBharat scheme has provided free care for almost 700,000 people. I applaud Prime Minister @narendramodi and Health Minister @JPNadda for their visionary leadership for #HealthForAll (sic).”

Earlier, Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley in a Facebook post had termed Ayushman Bharat as a ‘game changer’ in healthcare and stated, “In the first 100 days, 6.85 lakh patients have been provided hospital treatment. 5.1 lakh claims have availed of the scheme, for which payment has been released. This averages 5000 claims per day for the first 100 days. No patient have had to pay a single Rupee. Thus, once awareness of the scheme increases, It is anticipated that in the next few years, almost 1 crore plus families will benefit each year.” Jaitley also said, “The total number of hospitals covered by this scheme are both Government hospitals and private hospitals presently numbering 16,000 and increasing steadily. More than 50% of the implementing hospitals are in the private sector. Thus, a patient can enroll himself in empanelled hospital and get himself hospitalised upto charges of Rs. 5 lakh in a totally cashless and paperless manner.”

He further said, “This scheme is a game changer in healthcare. Many people from the weaker sections avoided hospital treatment in order to avoid the burden of an unbearable payment. Today 40% of India’s poorest are assured of a treatment in a hospital at the cost of public expenditure.”

Modi government launched Ayushman Bharat, the national health protection scheme on September 23 from Jharkhand. The scheme will cover 10 crore poor families providing coverage up to 5-lakh rupees per family per year. Almost 50 crore people amounting to 40 percent of the total population will be covered under this scheme. Besides the insurance cover, the government will create 1, 50,000 wellness centers across the country. The wellness centers include sub-centers, primary health centers (PHC) and community health centers (CHC). The families to get benefit from the scheme will be identified from the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC), 2011 data.  “The scheme will create considerable employment opportunities … It will create 10 lakh jobs in health and insurance sector,” said Indu Bhushan, the CEO of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana at an event organized by Assocham. The National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) will offer treatments at 20 percent lower rates than the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and Rashtriya Swasthaya Bima Yojana (RSBY).  “CGHS and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) rates have been used as reference prices for fixing the rates under the Modicare scheme. However, the rates under the new scheme are on an average 15-20% lower than that of CGHS,” said Bhushan.

For more details: Modicare to create 10 lakh jobs: Ayushman Bharat CEO

All the states except Kerala, Telangana, Odisha, and Delhi have joined the largest public healthcare insurance scheme in the world.

Modicare is the largest public healthcare programme in the world. It is also one of the most affordable and efficient schemes catering to almost 10 crore families. Other countries in the world can base their health care schemes on Ayushman Bharat as it caters to a huge population with enormous diversity. The success of Ayushman Bharat will not only be a service to the country but to humanity around the world.