Deliberations will focus on awareness generation, information technology backup and the systems and processes in each state
Six working groups comprising of all states of India discussed threadbare on Thursday the various aspects of implementation of the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), commonly being referred to as Modicare – a programme that would provide a Rs 5 lakh health cover for 10 crore families, as was announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech.
On Friday the recommendations of the working groups will be presented to a plenary comprising officials from the ministry of health, Niti Ayog and the principal secretaries health from the states after which a rollout plan for the ambitious health programme that the government is touting as a precursor to Universal Health Coverage, will be finalised.
Interestingly though West bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has clearly said that her state would not want to be a part of NHPS, officers from the state attended deliberations of Thursday and are also expected to do so on Friday.
The working groups discussed health processes in various states, fraud detection mechanisms, information technology enablers for the proposed programme and awareness generation. For the purpose of implementation, states have been divided into five categories – states with no health cover programme, states where only Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) is running, those that have added a top up to it, states where a programme is running on trust mode and states that are not a part of RSBY but have their own insurance based health plan. RSBY, formerly with the ministry of labour is a programme that provides a health cover of Rs 30,000 to migrant workers. A total of 24 states have a health plan in place. The cover amount varies between the Rs 30,000 of RSBY and Rs 3,30,000 in Rajasthan.
Interestingly though West bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has clearly said that her state would not want to be a part of NHPS, officers from West Bengal attended deliberations of Thursday and are also expected to do so on Friday. Attending a meeting in Krishnanagar, Banerjee had said: “The Centre has drawn up a health plan in which 40% of the fund has to come from states. But why should the state spend on another programme when it already has its own? A state will have its own scheme if it has the resources.” Uttar Pradesh on the other hand, has said that it can start the scheme in two months if the money is forthcoming from the Centre.
Sources in the government of India said all states attended Saturday’s session with the exception of Tripura where elections have just happened. “The recommendations of the six working groups will be discussed in front of the entire plenary on Friday, after that rollout plans will be finalised; that is where the five categories come in. We have had some preliminary interactions with the states through video-conferencing but the final plan will be decided after the workshop,” explained an official.
