Ayushman Bharat, also known as the National Health Protection Mission, that will offer free healthcare for underprivileged citizens of India, will be launched on from September 25, 2018. It will benefit more than 100 million ‘poor and vulnerable’ families — at least 500 million individuals, or about 40% of the population who will be guaranteed insurance of up to $7,000 per family for secondary and tertiary healthcare. Beneficiaries will pay no premium, and the federal and state governments will share the premium costs. The government also plans to open 150,000 health and wellness centers to provide comprehensive healthcare with free diagnostics and treatment.
Ayushman Bharat will issue e-cards to beneficiary families, who will have to be identified, informed, and persuaded to enroll. Twenty-eight state governments have signed up, but the east coast states of Odisha and Telangana are holding out.
Pilot tests of the technology platform started on August 15, and will go on for five weeks. “We will be testing our systems, both in terms of software to implement the scheme, and also in terms of training the people who will be using the software,” said CEO of the Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission, Indu Bhushan, who previously worked on mass healthcare programs in Thailand — where the popular 30-baht scheme led to universal coverage — Vietnam, and Mongolia.
Dinesh Arora, deputy CEO, said that they are trying to test the beneficiary identification system, and the hospital transaction system. “This is the time to understand the technology, have states play with the software and sort out any customization required or identify teething problems. A project of this scale will have some loopholes in the technology that will need to be fixed.”
The administration is also working on identifying and approving partner hospitals, and bringing private insurers on board, so that the plan can be implemented by the official launch date.
