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Health insurance may

become compulsory

NITI Aayog seeks to ensure that everyone is insured with prime focus on the middle class,

which is still not covered under any public healthcare system, reports tehelka bureau

ITI Aayog has come up with while those in the top have the capacity vate sectors across all levels of care,”
a healthcare system for to bear their medical exigencies. said Rajiv Kamar, Vice Chairman, NITI
the middle class which is “So nearly 50 per cent are still not Aayog. Under the PM Jan Arogya Yojana
still not covered under any covered under any public healthcare (PM-JAY), the bottom 40 per cent of the
N public healthcare system. system and the idea is to pool their population gets 5 lakh cover for sec-
Its latest report titled “Health System risk assets which will cater to the ondary and tertiary care against nearly
for a New India: Building Blocks” sug- health care needs of the middle class,” 1,350 disease conditions.
gests that the healthcare system would Kumar said. He added that people falling The government think tank has
exclude those covered under the new- under the middle class will not bother if suggested that there are important
ly-launched Ayushman Bharat scheme they have to pay nominal 200 or 300 health insurance and public fund-
that mainly caters to the bottom 40 per towards building a good public health- ing efficiency and equity reasons
cent population of the country. care system in the country and the for introducing a standard benefits
The report was recently released plan looks feasible. package as reference for all insur-
by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Bill Gates said India’s future is very ance coverage in India. “Benefits
Kumar in the presence of Bill Gates, bright because of its young population, package fragmentation occurs not
the co-chairman of Bill and Melinda and highlighted that human capital only in voluntary commercial health
Gates Foundation. NITI Aayog Adviser of any country is the sum total of its insurance (which traditionally does
(Health) Alok Kumar said the report healthcare, educational and nutri- provide a diverse set of health insur-
intends to prepare the road-map to tional investment for its citizens. “Our ance products) but also among publicly-
build a health system in the medium-to vision for a healthy India and quality subsidized schemes and packages,
long-term for those belonging to mid- health for all requires us to holistically resulting in publicly-funded coverage
dle class as the poor have been taken transform the delivery of healthcare inequity,” it said.
care of now through Ayushman Bharat services in both the public and pri- The report also pointed out that

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