The scheme aims to provide Rs five lakh health cover to 100 million of India’s poorest families, spurring off employment opportunities during its implementation.
If the central government’s public health insurance—Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM)—gets underway, then it is likely to generate more than 100,000 ‘long-term’ jobs in the next four years. The chunk of jobs generated will be from the expected expansion of private hospitals. AB-NHPM aims to provide health cover of Rs five lakhs to 100 million of India’s poorest families.
The target beneficiaries of the proposed scheme will be more than 10 crore families belonging to the poor and vulnerable section of the population.
It is expected that human resources in different states will be engaged in activities ranging from ‘implementation support’ at central and state levels, to ‘claim-management support’ at the trust and insurance agencies in the states implementing the scheme.
This will lead to increased access to quality health and medication. In addition, the unmet needs of the population, which remained hidden due to lack of financial resources will be catered to. This will lead to timely treatments, advances in health outcomes, patient satisfaction, enhancement in productivity and efficiency, as well as job creation, thus leading to overall improvement in quality of life.
Moreover, the scheme’s implementation depends on the availability of medical specialists and support staff. Last year, it was reported that there are only seven doctors, 17 nurses/midwives, one dentist and five pharmaceutical personnel available for every 10,000 patients. This only highlights the alarming gap between the demand and supply of skilled medical specialists.
AB-NHPM will target about 10.74 crore poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational category of urban workers’ families as per the latest socio-economic caste census (SECC) data, covering both rural and urban. The scheme is designed to be dynamic and aspirational and will take into account any future changes in the exclusion/ inclusion/ deprivation/ of occupational criteria in the SECC data.