It’s official. The State’s Arogya Karnataka is being co-branded and integrated with the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat, the national health protection scheme, and is all set for a rol out in several States on September 23.
With this, the present annual health cover of ₹1.5 lakh a year for a BPL family of five with additional assistance of ₹50,000 in some cases, will now be enhanced to ₹5 lakh a year per family in the State.
Confirming this to The Hindu on Saturday, Jawaid Akhtar, Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare), said a decision to this effect was taken at the Cabinet meeting on Thursday. “The decision has been taken after several rounds of negotiations with the Centre. The process of getting into an agreement with Ayushman Bharat has begun and a Memorandum of Understanding will be signed shortly,” he said.
Asked if Karnataka will be one of the States where Ayushman Bharat is being rolled out on Sunday, the Principal Secretary said: “The decision has been taken to join the Centre’s scheme. As Arogya Karnataka has already been rolled out in the State and this scheme is being integrated with Ayushman Bharat, the process of integrating the packages are being worked out.”
Of the 1.34 crore BPL families in the State, the Centre’s programme will cover only around 62 lakh families, who are currently under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY). The remaining 72 lakh families will be covered under Arogya Karnataka.
While Arogya Karnataka covers 1,516 procedures, Ayushman Bharat has 1,349 procedures. By integrating them, the total treatment procedures will be 1,628.
C.N. Manjunath, member of Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST), the nodal agency implementing the State’s health insurance schemes, said Ayushman Bharat will be complementary to the State’s health scheme.
“In fact, Arogya Karnataka’s integration with Ayushman Bharat will mean more expenditure on the State exchequer. The State’s contribution will be two times more than the Centre’s contribution. The estimated budget will be ₹1,000 crore of which the Centre’s share will be ₹286 crore,” he said.
Even for the 62 lakh families, the Centre will bear 60% of the cost and the remaining will be the State’s share, Dr. Manjunath added.
