Health Minister launches revamped health schemes

Union Health Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, launched revamped health schemes and has digitized the versions of Flagship Health Schemes. Schemes were launched on IT platform of National Health Authority (NHA).

Key Points

• Harsh Vardhan launched revamped Central Government Health Schemes (CGHS) apart from Umbrella Schemes of Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) and Health Minister’s Discretionary Grant (HMDG).
• Now all the schemes have become paperless, cashless and citizen-centric.

Why schemes were revamped?

According to the health minister, poor and needy people of country were unable to avail benefits of all these flagship health schemes of central scheme because of lack of timely intervention, delayed response and other such hurdles. Thus, schemes have been revamped and digitized which will enable smooth delivery of healthcare services to eligible beneficiaries under by making entire process paperless.

Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS)

CGHS is comprehensive health scheme to serve pensioners, employees, ex-MPs, Members of Parliament and dependent family members. Scheme has been extended across 72 cities and about 38 lakh beneficiaries are availing benefits under it within since last 7 years.

Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi

This scheme was launched to provide financial assistance of Rs. 15 lakh to poor patients suffering from major life-threatening diseases or rare diseases or cancer. The person is treated at government hospital. Beneficiaries are decided on the basis of BPL threshold in States and Union Territories.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2021