A very familiar sound strikes every ear that passes through the railway platforms of any big cities vividly promoting the pros of the National Health Protection Scheme. The announcement once and for all draws the attention of the passerby because of the conversationally interesting tone provided to it. The conversation particularly starts with the traumatic burden laid by hospital bills on the rich, middle class, and especially the poor and underprivileged ones. The tone suddenly takes an optimistic turn with the introduction of Ayushman Bharat or the National Health Protection Mission.
The profound impact of this social sector scheme pertaining to health and wellness could be felt among the citizen. Reason being, the promise made by the Government of India to render a cover to 10 crore poor and vulnerable families providing coverage up to 5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. The terms and conditions do add a little frizzy chill to a few intellectuals, mostly due to the mentioned norms of secondary and tertiary care hospitalization.
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Hospitalization does become a basic criterion in order to avail the benefits of the National Health Protection Scheme. The secondary and tertiary care hospitalization particularly aims at providing intensive care by physicians specialists in their respective fields. The implementation of the scheme aims to enhance the accessibility of quality medical education and health care, 24 new Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals by upgrading existing district hospitals in the country.
In consonance with other schemes, the benefits of the Ayushman Bharat are portable across the country and a beneficiary covered under the scheme will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public/private impaneled hospitals across the country. There seems to appear various benefits being provided by the scheme, all indicative of the need for hospitalization for availing the benefits from the National Health Protection Scheme.
Under Ayushman Bharat/ National Health Protection Mission, an entitlement-based scheme has entitlements decided on the basis of deprivation criteria in the SECC database. The beneficiaries can avail of benefits in both public and impaneled private facilities. To control costs, the payments for treatment will be done on a package rate (to be defined by the Government in advance) basis. One of the cores, principles of Ayushman Bharat or the National Health Protection Mission is cooperative federalism and flexibility among states.
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The much-talked scheme by the government does not provide any relief for primary care hospitalization. The diagnosis and basic treatments are expensive in today’s world still secondary and tertiary care hospitalization is given preference. The poor and the deprived would struggle on the same line that haunted them before. The scheme does very little for the minimally injured subjects while making lofty promises over the increased level of disability and malfunction. The scheme should be reviewed in light of the increasing dependence of diagnostic tests and techniques to confirm an aliment that happens to be excessively heavy on the pockets of average Indian citizens.
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