Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 16 Mar: When the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in the country in nearly 2020, concerns were raised about the country’s health infrastructure,including the low levels of health insurance coverage in India.
To address the issue, the central government had hoped that the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) would uplift the health sector in the state.
While across the country the penetration of insurance coverage has not had the intended effect, in Arunachal Pradesh, the AB PM-JAY along with the Chief Minister’s Arogya Arunachal Yojana (CMAAY) has brought changes in the health infrastructure.
Data from the state health department showed that by September last year, close to 90,000 families in the state had been covered under the insurance scheme. It is believed that the coverage has increased significantly in recent months.
The AB PM-JAY is implemented across the state by the National Health Authority (NHA) with the health department under state health agency (SHA). For its implementation, data from the 2011 Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) was used to identify 88,928 families with 42,852 members in 13,358 families, who were eligible for the AB-PMJAY.
Those who were not eligible to avail of the benefits of the AB-PMJAY, including indigenous populations, state government employees and resident certificate holders of three districts are eligible to be covered under the CMAAY.
An official of the state health agency shared data that claimed that since its launch there have been 1,818 hospital admissions that have covered costs amounting to Rs 3.28 crore.
The state government has currently empanelled over 30 government hospitals in the state and 25 outside the state. Plans are underway to empanel more hospitals.
Although the number of eligible beneficiaries identified to be covered under the AB PM-JAY is over four lakh, until September 14, only 25,161 Ayushman cards were issued in the state.
General medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, general surgery, medical oncology and ophthalmology were among the top procedures and medical advice for which the scheme was used in the state.
A health department official said that all expenses related to Covid-19 including testing (aside from those being voluntarily done) to ICU care is being borne by the state government.
There is another clear trend that emerged from the pandemic – states that were quick to act fought the virus better. In Arunachal Pradesh, for example, the government channelised its Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package worth Rs 141.94 crore to prepare for the pandemic.
As a result, the state managed to set up 32 Covid-19 health centres (326 beds), 66 Covid-19 care centres (2,497 beds), 383 quarantine facilities (13,411 beds) and two dedicated Covid-19 hospitals before the second wave. The network of hospitals also aided in providing free vaccination to all.
The implementation of the AB PM-JAY and CMAAY helped to take the pressures away from the regular health issues of the people and lay focus on improving the health infrastructure of the people.
