This is essentially an insurance scheme, where the government covers insurance payments for poor and vulnerable families.
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– Brahma Chellaney, analyst of global geostrategic trends, said the scheme will be a gamechanger for the Indian economy in the years to come.
– Chandra also expressed apprehensions over the payment module, claiming that “the much smaller” Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) failed to achieve the desired results as numerous hospitals opted out due to delayed payments by the government. “Adequate funds will be provided for its smooth implementation”, he said. The government now provides 30,000 rupees toward health care for poor families, but that sum is insufficient to cover most medical procedures. The insurance cover envisaged at Rs. 5 lakhs per family for hospitalisation expenses.
“This will avert wage loss and impoverishment”, said Jaitley.
The Central Government the other day announced a revolutionary scheme – National Health Protection Scheme which is the world’s largest govt funded program.
He said every aspect of the scheme “has been calculated” and the details of the programme will only be shared when the Government is ready to roll it out. The list pegged the average cost of coronary artery bypass surgery at Rs 140,000-180,000 (Rs 1.4-1.8 lakh) in 2011-12, while the cost of angioplasty was Rs 150,000 (Rs 1.5 lakh). Biggest beneficiaries are the private hospitals and insurance companies.
How is the new programme different from the existing programme? However, under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, under which the unorganised sector is covered under 10 categories of deprived, there are only 62 lakh families. “Apart from employment due to farming activities and self employment, this expenditure will create employment of 321 crore person days, 3.17 lakh km of rural roads, 51 lakh new rural houses, 1.88 crore toilets, and provide 1.75 crore new household electric connections besides boosting agricultural growth”. The RSBY offered Rs 30,000 to poor families and Jaitley acknowledged the RSBY in his speech. No wonder, most farmers who were asked to provide immediate reactions to the Budget have responded with thumbs down.
But Nadda and senior health officials on Friday asserted that the scheme would also rely on contributions from state governments and a proposed 1 per cent cess on income and corporate tax for use on health and education.
How well did RSBY, RSSY and NHPS work? But what’s interesting is that this Budget is the last full Budget that the Modi government is presenting before the next Lok Sabha polls.
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RSBY has been plagued with problems of transparency and poor service delivery. Overall, the budget has allocated Rs1,200 crore for the programme, Jaitley said. “This will cost an additional Rs 1070 crore”, a source told Business Today. Capping of prices of medicines and medical devices, including stents and knee implants, by the government has helped patients (Rs 11,365.61 crore) till December 2017, the Parliament was informed in December previous year.
