Rajasthan health insurance scheme to cover Ayushman Bharat beneficiaries too

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If you are a resident of Rajasthan, here’s some good news on the healthcare front. From today, the Rajasthan government has started offering a health insurance scheme for Rs 5 lakh over and above what the Union government’s Ayushman Bharat scheme offers.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has had a crippling effect on the nation and economy in general, it has also thrown up an opportunity for politicians to renew the pledge that a welfare state undertakes to its people. The Rajasthan government led by chief minister Ashok Gehlot has started offering a health insurance scheme for Rs 5 lakh.

Rs 5 lakh cover, cashless

It is cashless and the premium will be paid by the state government that has announced a budgetary support of Rs 3,600 crore this year.

The beneficiaries will get free treatment of up to Rs 5 lakh in state-run and empanelled private sector hospitals.

What is significant is that the beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat will also get benefit of this new scheme.

Rajasthan is widely recognised as a backward state that ranks 22nd in the country on the GDP per capita parameter. While the average GDP per capita of India stands at Rs 134,432, that for Rajasthan is Rs 109,386 (2020-21).

According to the National Sample Survey in 2014, as much as 86% of the rural population and 82% of the urban dwellers are not covered under any health insurance scheme.

Time of launch

While this scheme is similar to the Ayushman Bharat Yojana insurance programme, the world’s largest health insurance scheme, and to those in a few states such as West Bengal, where the same amount of coverage is offered free, it is the timing that makes many to sit up and take notice.

Rajasthan is one of the states that have been badly hit by the COVID wave. On April 30, as many as 17,155 fresh cases were detected in the state with the 7-day moving average figure of daily additions standing at 16,390.

Gehlot urges youths

The Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot highlighted that the scheme also covers cost of COVID treatment, and therefore, urged youths and social media enthusiasts to spread the word in their neighbourhood to nudge people to register themselves.

“Our aim is that if someone gets unwell in the state after May 1, they do not have to pay the amount of treatment themselves,” the chief minister.

Under the scheme, registration is free for everyone covered under National Food Security Act, Socio Economic Caste Census, small and marginal farmers contractual workers and those who have received ex gratia payment for COVID-19.

However, those who do not fall under these categories have to cough up Rs 850 which is half of the annual premium. The other half will be paid by the state government.

Health is mostly regarded as a state subject. The state government has designed it in such as way that pathological and radiological tests, and a related package of a 15 days after discharge from hospital is covered under the scheme. As many as 1,576 tests are covered.

To register, one needs to log in to sso.rajasthan.gov.in and fill in relevant details in an application form. The entire exercise can be done online.

The Aadhaar card is sufficient for someone to register for the scheme.