Industry welcomes official rollout of Ayushman Bharat

New Delhi: The launch of Ayushman Bharat also called Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (PMJAY) by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on 23rd September has created huge expectations among majority of not so well off Indians who have been spending their hard earned money on out of pocket bills to fulfill their healthcare requirements.

The overall reaction of the stakeholders has been mostly positive, with industry leaders welcoming the world’s largest public healthcare initiative.

“Ayushman Bharat will bring in the much needed revolutionary change to healthcare in India. We wholeheartedly welcome this laudable development and congratulate the Prime Minister. The National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) that aims to cover over 10 crore vulnerable families (approximately more than 50 crore beneficiaries) and provide health cover up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year, for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation through a network of Empanelled Health Care Providers (EHCP) will surely transform the entire healthcare ecosystem. A healthy nation is what will make our country prosperous.” said Mr Anuj Gulati, MD and CEO, Religare Health Insurance.

Dr Prathap Reddy, Founder & Chairman, Apollo Hospitals mentioned, “On the historic launch of the world’s largest health coverage scheme – Ayushman Bharat, I feel as happy as I did when we launched the first universal insurance scheme in my village in the year 1999. I am also filled with a sense of anticipation on the positive effect this scheme will have on the health of the 50 Crore beneficiaries.”

“My congratulations to the Prime Minister on the launch of this historic initiative. While we all work together to ensure the success of this scheme, there are areas that need focus and fine tuning. Ensuring the robustness of the IT backbone, weeding out potential fraud, ensuring coverage to only identified beneficiaries and ensuring more adoption by the private sector, who are rightly worried about the pricing and reimbursements, must remain paramount moving forward. I believe this scheme is for the greater public good and we must all strive to ensure its success,” Mr Reddy added.

Mr Arindam Haldar, CEO- SRL Diagnostics, “The health of the people of a country is directly responsible for the growth and progress of that nation. Healthcare delivery in India is at a decisive juncture and now after the launch of Ayushman bharat, is uniquely poised to undergo a change at all its stages — prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Ayushman Bharat, the largest scheme of its kind, aims  to benefit 50 crore Indians, almost equivalent to the population of North America or Europe . This landmark scheme ushers in a new era of prosperity wherein access to quality and affordable healthcare for all Indians is no longer a dream.”

Mr Haldar added: “However, effective implementation, availability of adequate financial resources, management and monitoring will be the key drivers of success. I am hoping that Ayushman Bharat would successfully address the three fold challenge in healthcare – lack of infrastructure to treat chronic secondary and tertiary diseases, exorbitant treatment costs and high level of out-of-pocket expenses. We welcome this initiative by the Government of India and pledge to wholeheartedly support it.”

In his comments Mr Sanjeev Gupta, MD, Kusum Group of Companies stated, “The launch of the Jan Arogya Yojna will help in bringing a paradigm shift in India’s healthcare system, and we congratulate the government for launching it. Since the major focus of Ayushman Bharat is the integration of Health and Wellness Centres, the scheme will not only benefit the masses by making medicines widely available, but also result in a significant surge in the demand of medicines.”

CARE India’s expert Mr Ravi Subbiah, Technical Director – Health stated, “Each year scores of families are pushed into the trap of indebtedness and poverty due to unfordable health care, mostly due to out of pocket expenditures. Treatments for ailments related cardiovascular diseases, cancers etc., were beyond the means of poor man. Increasing the claim to Rs.5 lakh per family for covering nearly 1300 treatments will bring in huge respite to underprivileged families needing urgent medical intervention. To ensure successful implementation of the scheme a robust monitoring mechanism is needed with people’s active participation.”