Government is implementing Umbrella Scheme of Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) to provide financial assistance for treatment of poor patients suffering from life threatening disease undergoing treatment in Government hospitals. Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) provides health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per annum for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to poor and vulnerable families identified as per Socio-Economic Caste Census Database. There is no proposal to extend the coverage of these schemes to out-patient services.
Sufficient funds have been allocated under AB-PMJAY and Umbrella scheme of RAN for providing the hospitalization and treatment services to entitled beneficiaries. The allocation under Budget Estimates (BE) 2020-21 for AB-PMJAY and Umbrella scheme of RAN are Rs. 6400 crore and Rs. 177.32 crore respectively. BE 2020-21 for Umbrella scheme of RAN includes Rs. 77.32 crore for the rare diseases component.
Government has formulated draft of the National Policy for Rare Diseases 2020 and placed it on the website of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare inviting comments from all stakeholders. The draft policy inter alia provides for creation of alternate funding mechanism through setting up a digital platform for voluntary individual and corporate donors to contribute to the treatment cost of patients of rare diseases. Government has already initiated action to create digital platform for the purpose.
Rs. 6400 crore was provided for AB-PMJAY in the BE 2019-20, which was reduced to Rs. 3200 crore at the Revised Estimates stage and Rs. 2993 crore was disbursed to the States/UTs.
The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Sh Ashwini Kumar Choubey stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha here today.