Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday announced the Mega healthcare scheme, which entails an investment of Rs 10,000-Rs 12,000 crore, could possibly be launched on either 15 August or 2 October.
Every household, the premium for the insurance scheme is expected to be around Rs1,000-1,200 annually. The expenditure on the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), which endeavours to render health cover of Rs5 lakh to 10 crore households, will be borne jointly by the centre and the states, revealed Niti Aayog advisor Alok Kumar.
The scheme has been called as the world’s largest government-funded health care programme. As per reports, the centre will be bearing an annual burden of nearly Rs5,000-6,000 crore towards premium on health cover, the remaining amount will come from the state governments, he said.
Kumar went on to say that the premium for each household for the insurance cover would work out to be between Rs1,000 and Rs1,200, which will be borne by the state.
However, the budget presented by Arun Jaitley on Thursday also kept much of its focus on rural plans and easing the agrarian crisis.
The Budget 2018 had headline schemes that include a health care insurance proposal for the poor and an increase in the minimum support price for crops.
Amidst all of this, India’s salaried class felt woefully ignored. The Union Budget offered no relief in the income tax slabs and the standard deduction of Rs 40,000 on taxable income that FM Arun Jaitley announced fell short of expectations.
There is an increase in 1% education and health cess, which extends taxes overall. An additional dividend distribution tax on equity mutual funds and long-term Capital Gains Tax on equity turned out to be an added blow.
There was an increase in the salaries of the president, vice president and governors, while MPs were guaranteed an increment every five years to keep up with inflation. All worked like adding salt to the wounds.