‘All states want to avail of Modicare’

NITI AAYOG SAYS 24 STATES ALREADY GIVING INSURANCE WHICH WILL BE ‘HARMONISED’ WITH CENTRE’S NHPS

All states and union territories have agreed to avail of a national health protection scheme announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley in his budget, said federal think-tank Niti Aayog member (health) VK Paul after the first round of talks with state health secretaries.

The NHPS — described by some in the government as ‘Modicare’ — will follow the “principle of automatic enrolment” to provide a floating cover of ₹5 lakh to 100 million vulnerable families identified by the Socio-Economic Caste Census, he added.

The first round of consultations was held between officials from Niti Aayog, the health ministry and state governments via video conferencing on Friday. Others from the Centre included health secretary Preeti Sudan, National Health Mission director Manoj Jhalani and Niti Aayog director (health) Dinesh Arora.

“As many as 24 states are already providing health cover or insurance in some form or the other. These will be harmonised with the NHPS,” said Paul, adding that the scheme will eventually be monitored by a national health authority set up under the National Health Mission.

Further consultations with health secretaries and officials in-charge from various states and union territories will be held on February 15 and 16.

The health ministry and Niti Aayog have formed six working groups comprising health department officials of the states and union territories to give the scheme its final shape, an official familiar with the process said. These include a working group to study processes that will enable identification of beneficiaries; issuance of cards; Aadhaar-seeding; claim submission; and settlement.

“The group will recommend these processes after studying the best practices of various states that already provide health cover,” the official said.

Another working group will study the IT infrastructure for integrating NHPS with primary care as well as software currently in use by states. While a third working group will detect frauds and redress grievances, yet another will make institutional arrangements for the scheme.