Sepsis Shots For The Masses

Modicare ambitiously plans healthcare for the poor, but doesn’t address the glaring concerns of past efforts

- Lola Nayar

THIS Independence Day, the government promises deliverance from one of the biggest pro­blems plaguing India’s poor: money to pay their medical bills. But many say the date to roll out Modicare—the catchier alias for Ayus­hman Bharat Mission, or National Health Protection Scheme—is chosen carefully to calibrate it with next year’s national elections. The signature initiative can be purposed to woo a large catchment of voters, many of whom struggle with rising medical costs and a crumbling public healthcare system.

The programme was announced in the Union Budget of 2018-19 to provide about 500 million people, mostly the poor living in the countryside, with health cover of Rs 5 lakh a year for free treatment of serious illnesses. The Narendra Modi government vowed to make healthcare affordable. Applause followed, as did criticism. The questions resurfaced days before the formal launch of Ayushman Bharat, which loosely means “an India blessed with a long life”.

Is this not a repurposed second innings of the UPA-era Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) that sought to provide free healthcare to families ‘below the poverty line’, or BPL, through a network of empanelled hospitals, mostly in small towns? The RSBY had an insurance cover of Rs 30,000 and pre-fixed rates for various procedures. But it got muddled in a series of frauds, undermining its foundation and purpose. So, how different is Modicare from Manmohancare?

Very different and much more aspiring, says Vinod Kumar Paul, a member in Niti Aayog’s health wing. “The RSBY was quite BPL-focused. It had coverage up to Rs 30,000 and some additional old-age cover was added later. We are offering Rs 5 lakh and targeting 40 per cent of the population based on the Socio Economic Caste Census,” he says.