Mumbai: Maharashtra turns into the primary state within the nation to supply common healthcare coverage after Union well being minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya introduced that the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) and state’s Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Jan Arogya Yojana (MJPJAY) can be co-branded within the state.

This determination was taken by Dr Mandaviya with Devendra Fadnavis, deputy chief minister, and state well being officers in a joint assembly on Friday. Fadnavis stated beneath the revamped well being scheme, ₹ 5 lakh cowl can be offered to 12 crore residents within the state.

The AB-PMJAY flagship insurance coverage scheme carried out by the National Health Authority (NHA) supplies well being cowl of ₹ 5 Lakh per household per yr for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation and has been carried out in 33 states.

“Under the present MJPJAY scheme, there are close to 2.22 crore beneficiaries in the state. They are below-poverty-line citizens of Maharashtra who had yellow or orange ration cards. The improvised scheme shall cover citizens irrespective of what ration cards they hold,” stated Vinod Bondre, performing CEO of MJPJAY. The improvised scheme will cowl 1900 illnesses in opposition to the present 996.

Fadnavis stated co-branded playing cards can be issued to 1 crore residents by August and 10 crore residents within the subsequent six months. The price of creating these 12 crore co-branded playing cards is estimated to be round ₹ 179 crore, which can be funded by the Centre beneath the NHA.

Fadnavis stated they plan to extend the variety of empanelled hospitals for the scheme. He additionally added that they plan to strengthen the agricultural healthcare infrastructure for which the Centre has sanctioned them ₹ 3000 crore funds.

“We had submitted ₹ 6,000 crore proposal to the Centre out of which ₹ 3,000 crore has been sanctioned to us,” stated Fadnavis

Mandaviya additionally introduced the opening of a 50-bed crucial care unit in every district within the state which can be outfitted with oxygen and ventilator and different issues required for crucial care administration of sufferers. The variety of Jan Aushadhi Kendras offering generic medicines at reasonably priced price can even be elevated, he stated.

“At present, we have 600 such units. We plan to increase it to 1,000. The rise in non-communicable diseases and the long-term expenditure it involves for treatment, we felt that it was important to increase the number of Jan Aushadhi Kendras,” stated Mandaviya.

Dr Abhay Shukla, National Co-Convenor, Jan Sawasthya Abhiyan stated having a common medical health insurance card shouldn’t be equal to healthcare.