Biocon, Dr Shetty launch health scheme for poor

Biocon Foundation and Narayana Hrudayalaya have announced the Arogya Raksha Yojana Trust, a new healthcare scheme in collaboration with ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company.

Professor Muhammad Yunus, managing director, Grameen Bank, Bangladesh inaugurated the first Arogya Raksha Yojana centre with a clinic, office and Biocare Pharmacy at Huskur village, Anekal taluk, nearly 20 km from Bangalore, on Sunday.

Stating that it is a new revolution in healthcare delivery, Yunus said, "Mostly, the banking system has rejected the personal healthcare as they are not convinced about the returns. Maximisation of business is the only edifice on which capitalism is based upon. However, a business must also include charity where only investment costs are met. The primary objective of charity is to do good to the people."

Arogya Raksha Yojana (ARJ) is a comprehensive healthcare scheme for people rural India. The scheme would enable access to high quality healthcare provided by a network of renowned hospitals and clinics supported by leading doctors and surgeons.

The scheme entails an insurance cover starting from Rs 120 per year and covers people against critical illnesses and surgeries. It also entitles them to free or subsidised medical examination and low cost medicines. The first phase of this launch will cover over six lakh people residing in Anekal Taluk, Karnataka and will be taken across the state in the months to come.

"We will begin with nearly one lakh people and besides reaching it to more people, we will then look at taking this model overseas," Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, who heads the Biocon Foundation, said.

"The root cause of health problems in this country is not the infrastructure, its the paying capacity. Unless we address the problem of paying capacity we will not be able to change the way that healthcare is delivered. We build wonderful hospitals but patients will not enter those institutions because they cannot afford it," Dr Devi Shetty, chairman, Narayana Hrudayalaya, said.