Presenting the Union Budget on Saturday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced Rs 69.000 crore for the health sector. Out of the total Rs 69.000 crore, PM Jan Arogya Yojana will get Rs 6,400 crore. Sitharaman also announced mission ‘Indradhanush’ under ‘Ayushman Bharat’ to cover new diseases and new vaccines.
In her Budget speech, the Finance Minister said, “There is a shortage of qualified medical doctors both general practitioners and specialists; it is proposed to attach a medical college to a district hospital in PPP mode; details of the scheme to be worked out soon.”
She added that viability gap funding window will be set up to cover hospitals and priority to be given to aspirational districts that don't have hospitals empanelled under Ayushman Bharat scheme.
The expansion of Ayushman Bharat Yojana will see setting up and development of more hospitals in Tier-II, Tier-III cities under the PPP model.
The govt also announced 20,000 empanelled hospitals in Ayushman Bharat and stressed on the need of the scheme in Tier 2 and 3 cities to benefit poor. The other major announcement in the health sector included insurance schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and Padhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana.
Other announcements in the health sector include- Rs 9,500 crore allocation for senior citizens and Divyangs. Another Rs 35,600 crore allocated for nutritional related programme.
The Ayushman Bharat scheme, launched in 2018, provides health insurance cover to almost half of India’s population. It provides a coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually ultimately benefitting 100 million families. It covers over 50 crore people for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation through a network of empanelled health care providers.
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