The National Health Protection Mission aims to provide a health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family to 10.74 crore families
With Aadhar still under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court, the National Health Protection Scheme will identify beneficiaries through their mobile numbers rather than any identity cards; the cards though will still be essential for verification of identity.
The mobile number of the head of the family will become the identity of the entire family for the purpose of availing NHPM entitlements. Announced in the Union Budget for 2018-19, NHPM will provide a health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family to10.74 crore families decided on the basis of the deprivations listed in the Socioeconomic caste census (SECC). It was passed by the Union cabinet last month.
The mobile numbers of NHPM beneficiaries will be fed in the system. At the time of hospitalisation their data will be accessed through mobile numbers. However they will also need to show some identity proof
“The mobile numbers of NHPM beneficiaries will be seeded in the system. At the time of hospitalisation their data will be accessed through their mobile numbers. That will be their identification number for the purposes of NHPM. However they will also need to show some identity proof,” said a senior health ministry official. With Aadhar caught up in a legal tangle, various states have devised various modalities for their respective health cover programmes – Kerala for example assigns a random number to each beneficiary though at the back end it is linked to Aadhar.
The health ministry and Niti Ayog which are working jointly in giving a final shape to NHPM both feel that using the mobile number is feasible because after the option to port numbers, mobile numbers do not get changed as often as they used to. “Moreover once people understand the benefits of NHPM they will make it a point to update the number at the local level,” the official added. This mode of identification is currently in use by most FMCG companies or direct to home cable service providers where the user only needs to provide his or her mobile number for the details to be accessed. The acceptable identification documents will be Aadhar, ration cards and voter I-cards. Some more additions may be made to the list at a later stage.
The proposed NHPM target population is “families that belong to any of the 7 deprivation criteria, automatically included families as per SECC database for rural areas and, defined occupational criteria for urban areas.”
