Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the launch of Ayushman Bharat (meaning ‘long life India’ in Hindi), a National Health Protection Mission promising health coverage to 100,000,000 underprivileged and vulnerable families in both rural and urban areas. Each family will get an annual insurance coverage of $7,700 which will take care of almost all secondary care and most of tertiary care procedures. A defined transport allowance per hospitalization will also be paid to the beneficiary. This initiative is expected to increase health insurance penetration from 33 percent of the population to 50 percent on implementation says global analytics company, CRISIL.
Highlights of Ayushman Bharat:
–> Benefits are portable across the country and a beneficiary will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any state-owned or approved private hospital across the country.
–> A package rate, which will include all costs associated with different kinds of treatments, will be defined by the government in advance. For beneficiaries, it will be a cashless, paperless transaction.
–> The insurance premium will be shared between the federal and state governments in a ratio of 60% to 40%. Each state will be free to choose the modalities for implementation — through an insurance company, directly through not-for-profit entities, or a mix of these two modalities. Transfer of funds from the federal government to State Health Agencies will be done directly through an escrow account.
–> The plan proposes to strengthen primary healthcare by establishing 150,000 Wellness Centers across the country.
–> the policy think tank of the Government of India, NITI Aayog, will enable a modular, scalable, and interoperable IT platform to support the deliverables of the healthcare mission’s programs.
–> To ensure widespread awareness, a comprehensive media and outreach strategy will be developed.
In-patient hospitalization expenditure in India has increased nearly 300% during last ten years. More than 80% of healthcare expenditure is met out-of-pocket: 68 % of the population in rural areas primarily depend on their income/ savings while 25% depend on borrowed amounts; in urban populations 75% rely on income/savings while 18% borrow money. This leads to nearly six million families falling below the poverty threshold due to healthcare expenditures. The major impact of Ayushman Bharat will be the reduction of this out-of-pocket expenditure.
Dr. Dinesh Arora, director of Ayushman Bharat said that this National Health Protection Scheme is entitlement-based and not enrollment based and he urged non-governmental organizations to get associated with NITI Aayog to help scalability, sustainability, and success of this plan.
Ayushman Bharat aims for increased access to quality health and medication for the marginalized citizens of India by providing access to timely treatment that will lead to improvements in health outcomes. It will be a challenging task to make this a reality, and the government will need to work hard to put it in place. But it it will result in better productivity, and a better quality of life for all Indians.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
