In the recent Central Budget presented by the Central Government, the world's largest health care scheme has been implemented. Under this scheme, 100 million poor families of the country i.e. 50 crore poor have been provided with treatment guarantee.
In his budget speech, the Finance Minister has also made it clear that the benefit of this scheme can be given to the remaining population of the country. Under the scheme, treatment expenses of up to five lakhs of each poor family will be borne by the government. Most of the poorer people will be able to get treatment in private hospitals and they will not be charged for a private hospital. The treatment will be completely cached.
How will the new health protection plan be different from the old plan?
- Under the old scheme, the Central Government provided assistance to the poor families in the form of National Health Insurance Scheme upto Rs 30,000 per annum.
- Under the new health protection scheme, 100 million families of the country, i.e. 50 crore people, have been declared as guarantees of treatment. Thus, the expenditure on treatment of up to 5 lakhs of 40 percent of the population of the country will be raised by the government.
How will the new health protection scheme benefit the poor and disadvantaged sections of the country?
- Under the new health protection scheme, 40 percent of the country's poor population will be covered.
- Further, the remaining population can also be covered under this scheme, so that most of the population will be covered under health protection scheme. This is said by the Finance Minister in the budget speech.
- For the purpose of providing better nutrition to the patients suffering from the T.B. disease, they have been announced to provide assistance of Rs.500 / - per month.
- The government has also announced to open 24 new medical colleges. The government has set the goal of setting up a medical college among every three Lok Sabha constituencies.
- Along with this new health protection plan, the government has also announced another scheme for better health of the common people. Under this, 1.5 lakh health and wellness centers will also be opened in the entire country.
- It is to be noted that in order to provide better facilities near their home for overall holistic health care of the public, it was said that the National Health Policy-2007 was to open a Help and Wellness Center.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded that the health care plan announced by the government is not only India but also the world's largest health care scheme. This will benefit the poor and the disadvantaged sections of the country in a big way.
