Modicare will be cashless; will give more funds if required: FM

February 02, 2018 13:53

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the world's biggest health cover plan announced in the Budget will be cashless and not a reimbursement scheme, and promised more funds if required depending on the rollout

later next financial year.

The National Health Protection Scheme touted as Modicare envisaged to provide medical cover of up to Rs 5 lakh to over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families, constituting 40 per cent of total population.

"It takes care of hospitalisation, the secondary and tertiary care. Obviously, it will involve various state hospitals and selected private hospitals. It can be on trust model, it can be on insurance model. It's not on reimbursement model because too many complaints come on the reimbursement model," he said in New Delhi.

The model is now being worked out between NITI Aayog and Health Ministry, he said adding the date of implementation would be next financial year and sometime in the course of the year it will be worked out.

If assuming the model to be insurance led, the premium shrink with the increase in number of policy holders, he said at an event organised by Open magazine.

The scheme although appreciated by experts also raises apprehension about its implementation and the initial corpus of just Rs 2,000 crore.

Assuring that the scheme will be entirely state funded, Jaitley said initial funds of Rs 2,000 crore has been allocated and whatever funds required, as the scheme rolls over, would be made available.

"In the coming year, I see more comfortable situation as far as revenues are concerned because the graphs as far as direct tax is concerned would move very fast," he said.

Following demonetisation and implementation of goods and services tax, the number of direct tax assesses have gone up ... once anti-evasion measures, I do expect a little bump up in the GST collection also. I don't see revenue going to be a major challenge in that," he said. -- PTI

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