National Health Policy

• Ensuring Adequate Investment - The policy proposes a potentially achievable target of raising public health expenditure to 2.5% of the GDP in a time bound manner.
• Preventive and Promotive Health - The policy identifies coordinated action on seven priority areas for improving the environment for health:

1. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
2. Balanced, healthy diets and regular exercises.
3. Addressing tobacco, alcohol and substance abuse
4. Yatri Suraksha – preventing deaths due to rail an d road traffic accidents
5. Nirbhaya Nari – action against gender violence
6. Reduced stress and improved safety in the work place
7. Reducing indoor and outdoor air pollution

• Organization of Public Health Care Delivery - The policy proposes seven key policy shifts in organizing health care services.
  • • • In primary care – from selective care to assured comprehensive care with linkages to referral hospitals
      • In secondary and tertiary care – from an input oriented to an output based strategic purchasing
      • In public hospitals – from user fees & cost recovery to assured free drugs, diagnostic and emergency services to all
      • In infrastructure and human resource development – from normative approach to targeted approach to reach under-serviced areas
      • In urban health – from token interventions to on-scale assured interventions, to organize Primary Health Care delivery and referral support for urban poor. Collaboration with other sectors to address wider determinants of urban health is advocated.
      • In National Health Programmes – integration with health systems for programme effectiveness and in turn contributing to strengthening of health systems for efficiency.
      • In AYUSH services – from stand-alone to a three dimensional mainstreaming

Ayushman Bharat is National Health Protection Scheme

Ayushman Bharat is National Health Protection Scheme, which will cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) providing coverage upto 5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. Ayushman Bharat - National Health Protection Mission will subsume the on-going centrally sponsored schemes - Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and the Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS).

Salient features

• Ayushman Bharat - National Health Protection Mission will have a defined benefit cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year.
• Benefits of the scheme are portable across the country and a beneficiary covered under the scheme will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public/private empanelled hospitals across the country.
• Ayushman Bharat - National Health Protection Mission will be an entitlement based scheme with entitlement decided on the basis of deprivation criteria in the SECC database.
• The beneficiaries can avail benefits in both public and empanelled private facilities.
• To control costs, the payments for treatment will be done on package rate (to be defined by the Government in advance) basis.
• One of the core principles of Ayushman Bharat - National Health Protection Mission is to co-operative federalism and flexibility to states.
• For giving policy directions and fostering coordination between Centre and States, it is proposed to set up Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission Council (AB-NHPMC) at apex level Chaired by Union Health and Family Welfare Minister.
• States would need to have State Health Agency (SHA) to implement the scheme.
• To ensure that the funds reach SHA on time, the transfer of funds from Central Government through Ayushman Bharat - National Health Protection Mission to State Health Agencies may be done through an escrow account directly.

In partnership with NITI Aayog, a robust, modular, scalable and interoperable IT platform will be made operational which will entail a paperless, cashless transaction.