India’s ‘Modicare’ to cost $1.7 bn a year, says report

New Delhi : Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to provide health insurance for about half the country would require an estimated 110 billion rupees ($1.7 billion) in central and state funding each year, sources familiar with the matter said.

The National Health Protection Scheme, which the government dubs “Modicare”, was announced in Thursday’s budget for 2018/19 and would provide 100 million families, or about 500 million poor people, with health cover of 500,000 rupees per year for free treatment of serious illnesses.

The government estimates the cost of insuring each family under the new scheme at about 1,100 rupees ($17.15), said a government official who had direct knowledge of the matter and did not want to be identified.

Officials at NITI Aayog, India’s federal think tank, on Friday said the government’s estimated premium for insuring each family would be 1,000-1,200 rupees, confirming the funding would be shared between federal and state governments.

“This is a turning point for the health sector,” Vinod K. Paul, a member of NITI Aayog, told reporters.

Indian officials have said “the world’s largest government funded health care programme” would have a central allocation of 20 billion rupees in 2018-19, but added that more funds would be made available as the programme is rolled out over the year.

Some critics have raised doubts whether 20 billion rupees in federal funding is enough to support the programme for 2018-19.

However, the government official said of the 110 billion rupees in premiums required to fund the programme, the federal government would contribute about 70 billion rupees with the 29 states providing the rest.

The 50 billion rupees in federal funding on top of the budget allocation of 20 billion rupees would be made available as the scheme details are worked out over the coming months, the official said.

“Government health insurance companies have readily agreed to fund the programme (at this cost),” the official said.