There is no doubt that the Prime Minister Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) is the biggest effort ever by any government anywhere in the world to provide health cover. To begin with, the scheme provides assurance up to Rs 500,000 to more than 500 million beneficiaries in the country. There is no limitation of family size. This goes well beyond the cover of Rs 30,000 and family size limited to five under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) launched in 2007.
The government has also put in place an extremely competent team to implement the scheme that has the potential of transforming health care in the country. The traditionalists who have lived with and promoted unadulterated supply-side management of health care would question this approach, but we know what this obsession with supply-side management has done to health care in India. Hence, there is a need to put the money (read entitlement) in the hands of the consumer and allow him to choose between public and private players providing health care. The benefits are portable and the beneficiary can avail of them from any empanelled hospital anywhere in the country. The scheme has started with a bang, with beneficiary numbers rising to 7,000 in a day — quite remarkable indeed!
The scheme will, however, face the real test now as the demands on the health infrastructure as well as the software backbone (borrowed from Andhra’s Arogyashree) will increase. True success will be determined by the ability of the scheme to bring down out-of-pocket expenditure. Let us look at some of the challenges that the scheme is likely to face.
Source :- BS
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