About the Ayushman Bharat Yojana:-
Ayushman Bharat, is a scheme launched by the prime minister of the country which will help in providing free health insurance for people who are not belonging to financially stronger background. This scheme is now called as Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.
The people who will get into taking the benefit of this scheme will be able to get the basic primarily health benefits and also can provide Secondary health care and Tertiary Health care if there is any requirement.
This scheme was implemented by Ministry of Health and Family welfare on 23rd September, 2018. This scheme had a budget of 8,088 rupees crores.
The ministry of Health and Family welfare then established an organization National Health Authority to administer the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat program.
Aims and Objectives of Ayushman Bharat:-
Ayushman Bharat or the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana is a mission which was launched to do something regarding health security of those who are not from a very financially secure background and to work in making healthcare infrastructure strong. Below written are some of the aims and objectives of the Ayushman Bharat scheme or Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana:-
- To make available better health institutions for public who can’t afford a lot and providing them with critical heath care assistance and structures to diagnose and cure too.
- To create a network of surveillance labs at all the levels of the country like national, regional, district and block. And to investigate, diagnose, averting and also to fight various diseases outbreaks.
- To create an aspect of covid 19 and a thorough research on the pandemic and some other diseases too and to provide one approach of health to avert, investigate and cater to any infectious diseases found in any human or animals.
Diseases covered under the Ayushman Bharat scheme:-
The scheme launched by the government of India was founded to give people basic medical facilities and offer them a healthcare coverage of 5 Lakhs rupees per family annually. It offers the following diseases, written below:-
- Pulmonary Valve surgery.
- Double Valve replacement surgery
- Anterior spine fixation
- Prostate cancer
- Skull base surgery
- Covid 19 treatment and testing
- Orthopedic treatment
Progress and advantages:-
The advantages of the scheme like Ayushman Bharat or Pradhan Mantri Arogya Yojana which is for the vulnerable section of the society are written below elaborately. These benefits are:-
- Healthcare will be provided to the families who are living an economically underprivileged by the government. The amount will be of 5 Lakhs per annum to each family applying for taking it’s advantages and standing with the eligibility criteria provided by the government.
- The families who are listed in the Socio-Economic Caste Census of 2011 will be able to get the advantages of the scheme. Approx. 8 crore families of rural India and 2 crore families in Urban India.
- This scheme advantage was to empower the women, girl child and the senior citizen above the age of 60. There is no specific age to take the benefit of the scheme.
- The scheme of Ayushman Bharat is not only benefitting people who are struggling with the primary health care problems but also from secondary problems which needs cardiologists and urologists to treat the problem. Not only this but the tertiary health care which falls under the category of various serious health diseases like cancer, cardiac surgery and some other life threatening diseases too.
- The whole system of making the process of all cashless and paperless registration and administration and removing the unnecessary burden of out of pocket expenditure. The people who are enrolled for this scheme which is Ayushman Bharat can take it’s benefits all over India if in case of requirement.
- The hospitals both under government or public and private cannot charge more for the medical care to all the people who are enrolled in this scheme. This was a good step to reduce the corruption problems and the delay to use the services.
- The people who are belonging to urban areas or who are belonging to rural areas who are not so economically rich can take this scheme benefits and this will help them in raising their standards of living and in case of emergencies they can go and treat themselves in hospitals.
- This is a good step to expand the healthcare network by providing insurance to common citizen living in the country and who are more vulnerable against the health related issues. This scheme cover a variety of services like daycare treatment, hospitalization, surgery and also medicines.
- This scheme is for so large mass of people in such a populous country like India which needs some help of the private sector too which can also help in boosting the production of more affordable healthcare medicines and proper equipment.
- There is no fix age criteria anyone who is belonging to a vulnerable section can take this scheme benefits. The best of this scheme is it have an extensive networks of empaneled hospitals.
Way forward:- Any scheme launched by any government required a time to tie updation and reform and dealing with the society it’s dynamic in nature. Here are some good ways to reform it and suggestion to make this scheme more advantageous.
- More use of Digitalization to keep it transparent and secure.
- It is important to check time to time about how these schemes are getting implemented day to day basis as there are doctors who are working in less payments so there are more chances of them becoming corrupt and do carelessness while treating a patient. So it needs better implementation and records too to check periodically that how these people are getting benefit of the scheme.
- More focus should be on infrastructure of healthcare like proper equipment, drugs and also the staff and proper trained doctors should be employed in hospitals.
- Educating people more about digitalization means and how to use them well to get the help on time without any delay.