‘Modicare’ likely to be launched on Aug 15 or Oct 2, to cost Rs 12,000cr pa

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ The mega healthcare plan announced in the Budget to provide 10-crore poor families with insurance cover against hospitalisation will cost up to Rs 12,000 crore annually and is likely to be launched on August 15 or October 2, officials said on Friday.

The ‘National Health Protection Scheme’, dubbed as ‘Modicare’ and the world’s largest government healthcare programme, will be funded with 60 per cent contribution coming from the Central government and the remaining from the states, said NITI Aayog advisor Alok Kumar.

Premium for availing health insurance cover of up to Rs 5 lakh is expected to be around Rs 1,000-1,200 annually for every household, which will be borne by the Centre and the states, he said.

In his Budget for 2018-19, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had provided an initial corpus of Rs 2,000 crore for the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPC) that aims to provide medical cover of up to Rs 5 lakh to over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families, constituting 40 per cent of India’s total population.