Budget 2023-24 likely to extend coverage of Ayushman Bharat. Check details
Budget expectations: The wider coverage was proposed by the National Health Authority and is aimed to benefit the non-poor segments of society who lack any health insurance.
January 25, 2023 / 12:31 PM IST
Budget expectations: AB PM-JAY was launched in September 2018 to provide free health cover of up to Rs 5 lakh to around 107.4 million poor
Budget 2023-24 is likely to extend the coverage of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) to the middle-class and senior citizens, according to reports. The wider coverage was proposed by the National Health Authority (NHA) and is aimed to benefit the non-poor segments of society who lack any health insurance.
It is to be noted that AB PM-JAY was launched in September 2018 to provide free health cover of up to Rs 5 lakh to around 107.4 million poor and vulnerable families and now covers over 140 million families comprising approximately 720 million individuals, protecting 60 per cent of the population.
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An additional 250 million, or approximately 10 per cent, have some form of private health insurance, leaving about 400 million, or 30 per cent of the population, out of the ambit of any health scheme, according to a NITI Aayog report published in October 2021.
The public expenditure on health by the Union and state governments has stayed at just about 1 percent. Experts demand a bigger allocation for the health sector in the upcoming budget.
Public health activist T Sundararaman suggested that in order to strengthen the core programmes on health, the investment in Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness centres needs to increase exponentially.
Shanay Shah, president of the Shalby group of hospitals, said that while health has been a priority sector for some time, it would be even better if it can be reclassified in the same category as agriculture (a National Priority Sector) for long-term lending from banks at lower rates.
The medical technology industry leaders are counting on the Centre to increase the ambit of the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to boost research and development in the Budget 2023.
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