The health minister was addressing a meeting of the WHO regional office in SE Asia
The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana is among the steps India has taken towards Universal Health Coverage, health minister J P Nadda said on Monday. He was addressing the 71st Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia.
Nadda said that the government’s health scheme ‘Ayushman Bharat’ rests on the twin pillars of Health and Wellness Centres for provision of comprehensive primary healthcare services and the Prime Minister’s National Health Protection Mission for secondary and tertiary care to 100 million families.
“Under the first pillar of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, we are reaching, out to approximately 40% of country’s population roughly covering 500 million individuals”
“Under the first pillar of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, we are reaching, out to approximately 40% of country’s population roughly covering 500 million individuals, who will be provided an insurance cover of 500 thousand Indian rupees to cover secondary and tertiary health-care. Initially spanning almost 1300 procedures under 20 different specialties, this will be the largest government funded health protection scheme in the world,” Nadda said. The country wide rollout of PMJAY is scheduled for September 25.
Ministers of Health from the countries of the WHO South East Asia Region (SEAR), Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, Preeti Sudan, Secretary (Health), Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region and Jane Allison, DDG, WHO were also present at the inaugural session.
Nadda said: “India has fast-tracked many initiatives aimed at achieving all the core tenets of Universal Health Coverage i.e, strengthening health systems, improving access to free medicines & diagnostics and reducing catastrophic healthcare spending.”
He said that although WHO has fixed 2030 as the timeline for elimination of Tuberculosis, India has set a target of five years earlier.
“In line with this ambitious plan, India is on track for the implementation of the National Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis and we have recently introduced supplementary nutritional support for the complete duration of treatment for patients,” he said.
