nTo promote preventive healthcare, 1.5 lakh Ayushman Bharat Health & Wellness Centres are proposed to be set up by 2022 under the Ayushman Bharat health flagship scheme, according to the Economic Survey 2019-20 tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Friday.
As on January 14, 2020, the Government has been able to set up just 28,000 health and wellness centres under its flagship scheme launched last year.
Citing the latest National Health Accounts (NHA) 2016-17 data, the economic survey on Friday said that out of pocket expenditure as a percentage of total health expenditure has declined from 64.2 per cent in 2013-14 to 58.7 per cent in 2016-17. Talking about performance of the Mission Indradhanush, the survey said 3.39 crore children and 87.18 lakh pregnant women in 680 districts across the country have been vaccinated.”
New vaccines such as Measles-Rubella (MR), Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine, Rotavirus Vaccine and Inactivated Polio Vaccine have also been introduced, it added.
Primary healthcare accounts for 52.1 per cent of India’s current public expenditure on health as per the National Health Estimates, 2016-17. The National Health Policy, 2017 recommended to spend at least two thirds of the government’s health expenditure on primary healthcare, it added.
“Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), the world’s largest health insurance scheme, is a major step towards providing affordable healthcare to the identified poor,” the Survey said.
The scheme has been rolled out based on the deprivation and occupational criteria of the Socio-Economic Caste Census for rural and urban areas, respectively, it added.
