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Implementation of National Health Protection Scheme

When Mr. [|Arun Jaitley], the finance minister of the country launched the National Health Protection Scheme on 1st February 2018, The world’s largest government funded healthcare programme targeted to cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families by providing coverage up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospital. The scheme was aimed to reduce water borne diseases and make India a better place in terms of its medical and healthcare facilities. It is also aiming to provide government sponsored health insurance to 500 million people in the country which is roughly about 40% of the population of the country. The idea for the scheme is just brilliant because of several reasons, the out of pocket payments for standard healthcare facilities in our country is so high that only a minimal amount of people can afford it. This causes impoverishment to around 7% of the population also leading to death of some. Also, not all schemes and insurance policies of the government healthcare duty are successful, there is sufficient evidence that if this gets implemented well, it can improve the healthcare, financial well-being and save lives. A study in 2011 from IISEC showed that over 21% of the annual income of the citizens was lost in ailments, especially amongst poor people or people with fewer facilities of such, both in urban and rural areas. Its implementation also aims at the growth of financial sector as health-financing policy directly affects the financial protection of people when direct payments that are made to obtain health services do not threaten their living standards. The ministry of health has also called the meeting of several state health secretaries to get their suggestion on the implementation of this mega scheme. As it is different from many other schemes and is a huge programme to be implemented on a large scale between the masses, the insurers are keen that they shouldn’t suffer any losses; hence the government is also providing Rs 2000 crore out of the 5000-6000 crore budget for the same. The implementation will also involve meetings and questions as to how much the centre and the state government will split the financing ratio, and how this scheme can also cause development of the country in other state and central government schemes. Amidst of all this, the national health protection scheme, also called the “modicare”, if implemented properly, has the potential to become the cornerstone of India’s healthcare needs for several future generations.