West Bengal is 26th state to join Natl Health Protection Mission

The state ruled by Trinamool Congress had not initially been keen on NHPM

After much tough talk, West Bengal on Friday became the 26th state to sign a memorandum of understanding with the National Health Agency for the implementation of the National Health Protection Mission (NHPM).

NHPM was announced in the Union Budget this year. Under the plan, 10.74 crore families will get an annual health cover of Rs 5 lakh. As per the MoU signed on Friday, NHPM will go to West Bengal “in alliance” with Swasthya Saathi the state health programme for tertiary care under which a cover of Rs 5 lakh is given to 40 lakh families.

With West Bengal in, the big states that are yet to take a call on NHPM are Karnataka, Punjab, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Maharashtra

Swasthya Saathi in fact was the reason why WB chief minister Mamata Banerjee had publicly expressed her reluctance to join the ambitious NHPM, the tertiary care arm of Ayushman Bharat which, the NDA government hopes, will be the flagship health programme of the government in the same way as the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was for the UPA.

Banerjee during one of her visits to the capital had told reporters that the state does not need to join NHPM as it already has its own scheme. However the fact that getting on the NHPM bandwagon means that the state would get to cover more than 1 crore people with the Centre paying 60 percent of the premium amount seems to have made the state government re-consider its stance.

With West Bengal in, the big states that are yet to take a call on NHPM are Karnataka, Punjab, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. The last has already told the Centre that the farm loan waiver has left the state exchequer cash strapped and finances for NHPM are a prime concern before the state can join.