The Tamil Nadu government has proposed the integration of the Ayushman Bharat scheme with its ‘Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme’ that provides coverage to any family with annual income of below Rs 72,000. So far, 1.58 crore families are enrolled under the Rs 1 lakh scheme, that also provides Rs 2 lakh coverage for specialised procedures. Of the hundreds of approved procedures, 158 have been reserved for government hospitals. The state also has a corpus fund of Rs 35 crore to help the poor with expensive procedures like transplants.
Tamil Nadu has sought use of the Food Security Act data, which has been Aadhaar-seeded by the state government, and not the Socio Economic Caste Census Data of 2011. The concern being that a lower number of families will benefit under the Central government guidelines.
“We are yet to arrive at a common ground on this,” admits a senior officer. Tamil Nadu has also suggested that the Centre’s scheme should cover only those procedures...
