And Then There Were Three

THREE INDIAN STATES - Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh, alone are home to over 3.5 crore poor, and deprived families. These states are also new to a model of health assurance. “Greenfield States” is how the CEO of the Ayushmaan Bharat National Health protection Mission, Indu Bhushan describes them, clubbing Haryana in the same bundle. Reason: They start with a “zero base” and need to establish a structure of trust, get more good quality private sector hospitals on board, and put in place the IT infrastructure syncing up all together. Just the three states of UP, Bihar and MP, he says, “make for one third of my total target population.” By end September, over 16,000 hospitals had applied, nearly 9,000 approved, and more in process. Punjab and Kerala are set to join – now only Telangana, Delhi and Odisha remain.