India's National Health Protection Scheme
Yesterday, at the Union Budget 2018 session the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley spoke about the world's largest Government funded National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) for India. This mega health insurance scheme for the poor is said to boost the health sector in India. The NHPS will cost the Indian Government over Rs. 1 lakh crore. It is said NHPS will provide 100 million families with medical coverage up to Rs. 5 lakh per. This will be given for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. The existing health scheme Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) provides a cover of Rs. 30,000 for up to 5 members of a Below Poverty Line (BPL) family. Around 36 million of the 59 million BPL families across 15 states are enrolled in RSBY scheme. The allocation for RSBY increased to Rs. 2,000 crore for the Financial Year 2019 (FY 19.) Previously, for FY 18 the amount was Rs. 470.52 crore. It is said NHPS is the fourth iteration of the RSBY. In the FY 2016 to 2017 RSBY was renamed as Ras...