Ayushman CEO pitches for universal health cover

While strongly pitching for Universal Health Coverage (UHC), the chief executive of Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission, Indu Bhushan, stressed that only 10 per cent of India’s population outside the central scheme and state schemes has comprehensive health insurance and that a large section of the middle class does not have any health cover. In a long note, Bhushan said the “political will to support UHC has never been greater in India” and that the initial momentum of the scheme provides a “strong proof” of concept and a viable framework for achieving UHC. “The country has irreversibly set itself on course to achieve UHC,” he said. He pointed out that many states had used their own resources to expand coverage of Ayushman Bharat, which now hence covers 130 million families against the originally planned 100 million families. “The states have shown strong leadership and willingness to adopt UHC as their primary health goal. Some states like Uttarakhand and Karnataka have expanded the scheme to almost their entire population. Many other states and UTs have similar plans,” he wrote. Bhushan added further, “UHC is feasible and Ayushman Bharat can be expanded to the middle class but it is also a question of resources.” “A consolidated government scheme can plausibly extend benefits to the ‘missing middle’, perhaps on a payment basis, graded on the ability to pay,” he wrote.