Finance Ministry May Provide Ayushman Bharat ‘Booster Funds’ As Cashless Health Hit By Less-Cash Bottleneck

Ayushman Bharat, the world’s largest healthcare scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is reported to have used up all the primary resources allocated for the scheme and reached out to the Union Finance Ministry to flush out further funds, reports The New Indian Express.

It is reported that the National Health Agency, tasked to implement the scheme, has asked the Union Finance Ministry for additional funds of Rs 4,500 crore for the remaining fiscal 2018-2019 year after using up Rs 2,000 crores that was allocated for the programme this year.

The NIE quoted sources from NHA as saying that there is no shortage of resources in the successful implementation of the Ayushman Bharat scheme. “We are facing some teething trouble, but the government is determined to ensure that fund crunch is not an issue in this ambitious scheme." said the source. The scheme would provide cashless medical treatment worth up to Rs 5 lakh to 50 crore Indians.

The Government of India think-tank, NITI Aayog, had estimated the annual requirement of Rs 10,000 crore for the scheme.

An analysis published in the Indian Journal of Community Medicine by community medicine specialists Harsh Bakshi, Rashmi Sharma and Pradeep Kumar said the annual premium of AB NHPS (the scheme was called Ayushman Bharat- National Health Protection Scheme earlier) would be around Rs. 2,000 per family to start with and would entail an expenditure of Rs. 20,000 crore (@ Rs. 2,000 per family for 10 crore families).