India's national health protection scheme: A preview

Abstract

India has recently announced the 'Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Scheme (AB-NHPS),' one of the largest government health insurance schemes in the world. The scheme aims to provide quality health care to the poor and vulnerable families, a step forward toward the government's commitment on universal health care. The beneficiary households under the AB-NHPS will be based on the deprivation and occupation status of the family, drawn from the Socioeconomic and Caste Census database. The scheme will take care of all the secondary health care and most of the tertiary health care procedures. The road map envisaged for the implementation of the scheme consists of number of challenges such as funding, acceptance by the states, exclusion of primary health care, and outpatient expenditure from the scheme. We conclude that successful implementation of the said scheme will require robust planning, stringent regulations, simplified processes, and continuous monitoring using advanced technological E-health platforms.