NEW DELHI: The Centre, in order to roll out the National Protection Health Scheme with Rs 5 lakh health insurance coverage for about 10 crore families in the country, has formed six working groups with states to finalise the contours of the ambitious programme.
NHPS or Modicare, which aims to cover about 50 crore people belonging to lower socio-economic strata and is being touted as biggest medicare scheme in the world, was announced in the Union budget this year.
Sources in the Union ministry of health and family welfare said that two -day long discussions were held with states to assess their preparedness and to learn from the one which had good experience in implementing their own health insurance schemes.
“Almost all States and Union Territories participated in the two-day deliberations along with representatives from health and finance ministries and Niti Aayog,” a statement from the government said on Friday.
In a bid to engage with states, six different working groups on processes, information technology, fraud detection and grievances, awareness generation, institutional arrangement and continuum of care were also formed.
The groups also discussed the implementation of Centre’s existing health protection scheme Rashtra Swasthya Bima Yojana that provides Rs 30,000 coverage to about 13 crore people in the country.
On the second day of national consultations, five groups of States were formed based on the implementation status of health insurance schemes: states with only RSBY, states with RSBY and their own schemes, states with only their own schemes in Insurance mode, states with only their own schemes in Trust mode and states with no health insurance.
“Each of these five categories of states identified issues and likely solutions,” the release added.