The Budget for 2018 was presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today and a National Health Protection Scheme was also announced as a part of the presentation. Under the National Protection scheme, Rs 5 lakh cover will be provided every year to 10 crore poor and vulnerable families in India.
The Minister while presenting the Budget said “We are now launching a flagship national health protection scheme to cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families. This is approximately 50 crore beneficiaries, by providing them up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization.”
Further, the Minister has termed this initiative as the world’s largest Government funded healthcare programme and that it will take healthcare protection to a new aspirational level.
Also part of this scheme, Rs 1,200 crore has been announced for 1.5 lakh wellness centres in the country. Further, Rs. 600 crore has also been announced for nutritional support of Tuberculosis patients in India and under the very same initiative, Rs 500 will also be provided to each patient who is undergoing treatment for tuberculosis.
For the new initiative for health by the Government, it has been announced by the Minister that a total of 24 new government colleges will be part of this initiative.