New national health insurance plan on the anvil

Panchayats likely to be the nodal agency marketing the scheme

A new national health programme is expected to be announced shortly where local panchayats will be the nodal agency in marketing health insurance to the rural poor.

"The government wishes to bring the rural sector under a single health umbrella, whereby the entire population of a village or district is covered. This will be possible through panchayats," said officials in the know of developments.

Panchayats will be expected to collect the necessary premium in the form of a cess. Should there be a fund shortage, the government will make good the shortfall in the form of a subsidy, said officials. It is estimated that the government will make an allocation of over Rs 6,500 crore in the coming financial year towards the new healthcare scheme. The programme is aimed to provide healthcare in under-served villages.

The former BJP government had introduced a universal insurance plan at Rs 1 per day. However, the scheme failed to take off in most states for want of proper workable machinery for the collection of premium income.

"There is no company today able to service or deliver the programme, let alone market the same," said S K Mahapatra, former secretary of Gipsa, the nodal body of the four state general insurers.

The proposed healthcare plan will commence in select districts. In addition to collecting the cess, the centre will also need to create proper public health services and improve rural hospitals to provide adequate healthcare.

Over 2,000 community health centres will be upgraded in keeping with the standards laid down by the Indian Public Health Standards. It is also understood that the government proposes to promote multiple insurance models, wherein private insurance players will also play a role.

The Centre will develop a viable risk-pooling mechanism and create necessary institutional support for public healthcare management.

In the earlier universal health plan of the BJP government, though compensation and benefit was fixed, the necessary infrastructure in terms of healthcare delivery had not been addressed.