AYUSHMAN BHARAT SCHEME: A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
The author of this blog is Mr. Samarth Garg pursuing B.A.L.LB (HONS), 1st Year student at Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai.
The entire world is fighting the pandemic, leading to a global lockdown. The virus
had taken lives as well as a means of livelihood. The virus is incessant and
proving to be fatal. With no vaccine ready yet, people are forced to stay at
home. Globally the virus has affected around 82 lakh people while deaths
are about 4.2 lakh[1].
Countries which have highly developed medical infrastructure even have failed
to cope with the virus. The countries are falling short of doctors, medical
staff and equipment required for the treatment.
Countries
globally are working hard to find a vaccine or a cure as soon as possible but
the virus is unknown and even reversing the virus is not helping. The
researchers have to make a vaccine from scratch, and it is believed that the vaccine
may come by the year-end.
India
was very fast in imposing a nation-wide lockdown and it had learnt its lessons
from countries like Italy, Spain and France that this coronavirus is not an
ordinary virus, thus the lockdown was imposed with partial relaxations which
helped India to keep the tally of the positive cases low. Though the virus
reached the country late, the outspread has been quick and incessant.
Still,
India is in the top 5 worst affected countries from the novel coronavirus. In
India, the tally of
the positive patient is around 3.5 lakhs and deaths near 11 thousand. India
being such a densely populated country the cases are relatively low while the
mortality rate[2]
is amongst the lowest in the countries affected by the pandemic.
According
to the global healthcare quality and access report [3]by
Bloomberg India ranked 145 out of 190 countries. This shows that health
infrastructure in India is in a very bad state, still India managed to cope
with this unknown enemy.
India
has its population from two areas: urban area and rural area. For the
authorities to curb the outspread in urban areas is still easy when compared to
rural areas. As this nation-wide lockdown has stopped all the economic
activities, all the migrant workers are forced to return to their villages and
hometowns as a result there is a risk of spreading the virus. People in tier 1
and tier 2 cities have accessibility to hospitals and other medical services
while people in villages don’t have the required medical infrastructure. About
472 million Indians have health insurance while the rest is uninsured this
indicates that most of the population of India does not have required funds to
get themselves treated for the coronavirus. Out of this number of 472 million,
359 million people are covered under the government health insurance as
per the 2018 report.
Thus,
India needed improvement in health infrastructure and accessibility of the
services to the worst affected population of the country and achieve universal
health coverage which is one of the sustainable development goals.
The administration in 2018 launched the Ayushman
Bharat Yojana, which is the world's biggest medical coverage/affirmation scheme
completely financed by the government. With the aim of leaving no one behind.
This plan intends to undertake path-breaking intercessions to comprehensively
address the health services framework (covering prevention, promotion and
ambulatory care) at the primary, secondary and tertiary level.
It gives a cover of Rs. 5 lakhs for every family
every year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization across open and
private empanelled hospitals in India. PM-JAY gives cashless access to medical
services for the recipient at the point of service, that is, hospital. PM-JAY
imagines helping alleviate catastrophic expenditure on medical treatment which
drives almost 6 crore Indians into destitution every year. Advantages of the
plan portability across the nation over for example a recipient can visit any
empanelled open or private medical clinic in India to avail cashless treatment.
Services incorporated are roughly 1,393 procedures taking care of the
considerable number of costs identified with treatment, including however not
restricted to drugs, supplies, indicative administrations, doctor's expenses,
room charges, specialist charges, OT and ICU charges and so on.
Till date, 12.45 e-cards have been issued and around
96 lakh hospital admissions while 20 thousand both public and private hospitals
have been empanelled under the scheme[4].
Even after such numbers and key provisions included in the scheme the insurance
was considered failed because of its implementation process, burdened hospitals
and large amounts failed to be sanctioned.
Considering the present situation of India where the
virus is spreading like wildfire in the forest. With the raging coronavirus
outspread in India comes mounting medical bills. This is considerably
troublesome in a nation where just 20% of the populace has health care coverage
inclusion. Thus, Indians pay the most out of their pockets for getting to
access medical services. Be that as it may, India's general medical coverage
inclusion for the destitute could help mitigate a portion of this monetary
burden.
The move may give some help to India's floating
workforce, who have been under extraordinary pain since the national lockdown
was forced, prompting the loss of jobs and lives, other than starvation and
medical problems. If we look from the health perspective, the introduction and
status of disease of the vagrant workers are obscure and whenever contaminated
will have concerning repercussions
. Thus, we can see how Ayushman Bharat which was not
much used is now proving to be a vital tool unknowingly for the people who have
opted for it because the treatment and the test cost are exorbitant.
The Central government initially started with
allowing free testing for those under the scheme[5].
One test cost 4000 for a migrant worker to pay that sum is a lot, but this
scheme ensures free testing. The only thing required is an e-card, to ease that
the government has linked Ayushman Bharat card with Digi locker. Further, we
are managing the call centre for the 1075 helpline of the health ministry. People
working under Ayushman Bharat field around 30,000 to 40,000 calls each day as
for providing required data to the users. Besides, they presently have a major
database of residents. This database additionally gives us who are the
high-hazard individuals, the old, the individuals who have comorbid conditions,
and so on. Officials have made 700,000 calls to such high-risk individuals. Of
those, follow up with any individual who has COVID-19-like side effects. The
doctors are requested to call them to guarantee they get the correct data and
treatment. On the off chance that they need testing, treatment, or isolation,
is overseen.
To ensure health cover to the under-privileged
during the pandemic, so all the migrant workers will receive treatment
under public insurance[6].
In all the empanelled hospitals. Lastly, the Supreme Court
on Friday asked private hospitals
whether they are ready to provide treatment to COVID-19 infected patients at
the charges prescribed under the government's Ayushman Bharat Scheme. As the
charges, there are around 50,000 per day while under Ayushman Bharat yojana it
is merely 4000 per day. It is not compulsory, but the apex had asked those
which lands at concessional rate are.
Conclusion
The COVID-19
pandemic has presented several challenges economically to psychologically. The
most important as of now is if you are getting symptoms which are similar to
the virus, individuals should get tested and receive treatment. With this said
the most vulnerable population of the country can to get treated and ease the
financial liability of migrant workers. This could be a stepping stone towards
achieving universal health coverage while encouraging people to opt for such a
scheme. It is a step towards better health infrastructure and a tool to fight
the pandemic. Thus, it would not be wrong to say that Ayushman Bharat scheme is
a blessing in disguise.
[1] Coronavirus Cases:.
(n.d.). Retrieved June 20, 2020, from
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
[2] ANI / Updated: Jun 2,
2. (n.d.). India's fatality rate due to Covid-19 is 2.82%, says Centre: India
News - Times of India. Retrieved June 20, 2020, from
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/indias-fatality-rate-due-to-covid-19-at-2-82-says-centre/articleshow/76155707.cms
[3] IndiaSpend, S. (2018,
May 24). India worse than Bhutan, Bangladesh in healthcare, ranks 145th
globally. Retrieved June 20, 2020, from
https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/india-worse-than-bhutan-bangladesh-in-healthcare-ranks-145th-globally-118052400135_1.html
[4] Pradhan
Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY). (n.d.). Retrieved June 20, 2020, from
https://pmjay.gov.in/about/pmjay
[5] Perappadan, B. (2020,
April 05). COVID -19: Testing, treatment now available for free under Ayushman
Bharat Scheme. Retrieved June 20, 2020, from
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/coronavirus-testing-treatment-now-available-for-free-under-Ayushman-Bharat-Scheme/article31261580.ece
[6] Sharma, N. (2020, June
10). Migrants to receive covid care via Ayushman Bharat scheme. Retrieved June
20, 2020,from https://www.livemint.com/news/india/migrants-to-receive-covid-care-via-Ayushman-Bharat-Scheme-11591818496462.html
Comments
Post a Comment