Funds for health cover

NEW DELH: India has allocated $1.54 billion (R18.2bn) for its ambitious health programme aimed at providing insurance cover for about half the population, the health minister said yesterday, labelling it the largest such scheme in the world.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which has dubbed the scheme “Modicare”, announced last month that the programme would provide 100 million families, or about 500 million poor people, with health cover of 500 000 rupees (R91 096) a year for treatment of serious ailments. The federal budget had made an allocation of 20 billion rupees for the scheme for 2018/19, but officials said more funds would be made available as the programme was rolled out. – Reuters