The central government has formed a panel to evaluate the design and implementation of its flagship health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat, and to propose improvements.
The National Health Authority (NHA), which is the apex body responsible for implementing the PM Jan Arogya Yojana, has been appointed Niti Aayog member Dr VK Paul to chair the panel, reported News18. Niti Aayog is a public policy think tank.
Ayushman Bharat was launched to achieve universal health coverage. It has two components which are the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) and health and wellness centres.
Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY, launched in September 2018, is the largest health assurance scheme in the world which aims at providing a health cover of INR500,000 ($6,033) per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to over 120m poor and vulnerable families (approximately 550m beneficiaries) that form the bottom 40% of the Indian population.
The new panel, whose members include IRDAI officials and hospital representatives, will discuss important issues, including the expansion of the scheme’s beneficiary base. It will propose measures to prevent fraud, abuse or misuse.
Focus
Among the 10 broad areas of review defined by the NHA, one focus is to strategize the roles and responsibilities of the central and state governments in terms of scheme policy, design and implementation.
The panel also has to review the “progress of the scheme in terms of beneficiary identification, hospitalisation, equity in access to healthcare services, scheme awareness, savings in out-of-pocket expenditure due to healthcare costs and participation of the private sector”.