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HomeIndiaGovernanceAadhaar card must for Modicare, but with a small exemption

Aadhaar card must for Modicare, but with a small exemption

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To avail benefits under the Modicare scheme, the Aadhaar card will be mandatory from the second visit onwards. Other IDs to work for the first visit.

New Delhi: If you want Modicare, you better keep your Aadhaar card ready.

The government-sponsored scheme, known as Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission, has made Aadhaar mandatory for patients from the second visit onwards. For the first trip, though, other IDs such as ration card, voter card, driving licence or any other government prescribed proof will be enough.

“On the first visit, patients can avail the benefits without the card. But on the following visits, Aadhaar card or the registration slip (showing that they have applied for it) is compulsory,” Indu Bhushan, chief executive officer, Ayushman Bharat told ThePrint. “Patients will be issued a card, similar to any other insurance card, once they are registered through their 12-digit unique biometric number.”

While the Supreme Court is hearing a clutch of petitions challenging Aadhaar on the grounds of privacy, the government is convinced with the idea of linking it with world’s largest national health protection scheme.

“Most of the countries across the globe which are running successful universal health coverage models are using unique IDs to bind the scheme together… We are studying those models to strengthen the data security further,” said Bhushan who served as director general, East Asia department, Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila, Philippines.

Scheme details

The health insurance scheme aims to cover nearly 50 crore beneficiaries from over 10.74 crore ‘vulnerable’ families as per the latest Socio-economic and Caste Census (SECC) data with an annual health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year.

This health cover will take care of almost all secondary care and most tertiary care procedures.

The government has finalised the rates for over 1,300 packages, including 23 specialties such as oncology, cardiology, ophthalmology, urology and orthopaedics.

The scheme’s basic risk cover will include hospitalisation expenses, including registration charges and nursing charges. It will also cover consultation fees, surgical equipment and procedure charges and charges of implants, medicines and diagnostic tests. The scheme will also cover follow-up care along with pre- and post-hospitalisation expenses.

Identifying the beneficiaries

The government has got a list of 50 crore people from the SECC data who are eligible to avail benefits under the scheme. “The data has given us the name of the people. However, those ‘eligible’ people are unaware that we are looking for them,” said Bhushan.

The government is tracing beneficiaries through village health workers who are going door-to-door to collect details such as mobile numbers, identification details of the beneficiaries, latest address or updating the entries for those who have died.

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