CENTRAL GOVT’S AAYUSHMAN BHARAT TO COST STATE ₹500CR

MUMBAI: The state will have to shell out about ₹500 crore for the central government’s mediclaim scheme, Aayushman Bharat and is demanding that the Centre offer financial assistance.

The state government-run Mahatma Phule Jan Arogya Yojana (MPJAY) covers about 2.23 crore families and offers 971 procedures with medical cover of up to ₹1.5 lakh per family. This costs the state ₹800 crore a year. The state has treated 19.9 lakh patients in the last five years.

Against this, the Ayushman Bharat will offer coverage of up to ₹5 lakh per family for 1,037 procedures. It will however, cover only 83.65 lakh families below the poverty line as opposed to the 2.23 crore families covered in MPJAY.

“Our annual premium for 971 procedures is ₹690 a family and with our plan to extend it to 1,100plus procedures, it could rise to ₹1,100. For the implementation of the Central scheme, we will have the additional annual burden of about ₹500 crore to cover the difference between the cover of patients and expenditures. Secondly, MPJAY is managed by an insurance company, while for Ayushman Bharat, we will have to have our own IT platform and an awareness drive for which we will have to bear the financial burden,” said Deepak Sawant, public health minister who asked the Centre for financial aid during his recent visit to Delhi.

The Centre is sharing 40% of the expenditure on Ayushman Bharat.