The Indian Medical Association, the country’s largest body of doctors, on Sunday stood up for universal health care directly funded by tax revenues rather than the insurance-based model through which the Centre is currently providing hospitalization cover to the poor and vulnerable. According to the IMA, the insurance-based Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (PMJAY), launched a year ago, would become too expensive to run efficiently in the long run, encourage profit maximization by large private hospitals and wipe out small and medium hospitals.
The statement came ahead of the two-day government program from Monday to mark the first anniversary of the PMJAY scheme, which provides hospitalization cover for up to Rs 5 lakh a year to over 10 crore households, or 50 crore people. Over the past one year, over 46 lakh beneficiaries have received cashless hospital treatment…
