I-day: Modi unveils Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (Praja)

The scheme will be launched on September 25, birthday of Deen Dayal Upadhyay

From September 25, 50 crore Indians will no longer face the sword of impoverishment because of catastrophic medical expenses, prime minister Narendra Modi announced from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the 72nd Independence Day.

The scheme, till now referred to as the National Health Protection Mission, will now be called the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (Praja). The tests for the information technology platform will be starting right away in various parts of the country. It will be a part of the Ayushman Bharat umbrella.

“One person’s disease can make a whole family ill…not just in the poor but even among the middle and affluent classes. That cycle can sometimes go on for generations. So we have decided that 10 crore families – that is 50 crore people will get a health cover of Rs 5 lakh every year… few of you present here can understand the scale of this. This is the population of America, Canada and Mexico taken together,” Modi said in its address.

Currently 19 states in the country have a health insurance/assurance scheme that covers about 12 crore people. Once PRAJA is completely rolled out, it will take the total coverage to about 17 crore.

In-patient hospitalization expenditure in India has increased nearly 300% during last ten years. (NSSO 2015). More than 80% of the expenditure are met by out of pocket (OOP). Rural households primarily depended on their ‘household income / savings’ (68%) and on ‘borrowings’ (25%), the urban households relied much more on their ‘income / saving’ (75%) for financing expenditure on hospitalizations, and on ‘(18%) borrowings. (NSSO 2015). Out of pocket (OOP) expenditure in India is over 60% which leads to nearly 6 million families getting into poverty due to catastrophic health expenditures.

While beneficiaries will be decided by the deprivations data from the Socioeconomic Caste Census 2011, PRAJA will be implemented along with state health schemes wherever there is one running. Currently 19 states in the country have a health insurance/assurance scheme that covers about 12 crore people. Once PRAJA is completely rolled out, it will take the total coverage to about 17 crore. State and national schemes have a fair amount of overlap in the beneficiary lists.

So far 29 states and Union Territories have already signed the memorandum of understanding with the Centre to be a part of what is being described as the largest government health cover scheme in the world.

Technology, Modi said will be the backbone of the system. It would also result in the creation of a lot of jobs especially in the medical sector. Hospitals would be set up in Tier II and Tier III cities.