Question : OPD Services under RAN and ABY

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:
(a) whether the Government proposes to extend the coverage of the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) and\ Ayushman Bharat Yojana (ABY) insurance schemes to include out-patient services, which are currently excluded and if so, the details thereof;
(b) whether the Government has made sufficient allocation of funds for supporting long term and lifelong treatments under these schemes for critical and rare diseases, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
(c) whether the National Policy For Treatment of Rare Diseases has suggested alternate sources of funding, such as crowd-funding or corporate donations to supplement the one-time payment envisaged under the Policy, if so, steps taken by the Ministry to help people avail such alternative sources;
(d) whether the Government has only utilised 50% of the Ayushman Bharat Yojana funds in 2019-20; and
(e) if so, the details thereof?

ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND
FAMILY WELFARE
(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)
(a): Government is implementing Umbrella Scheme of Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) to provide financial assistance for treatment of poor patients suffering from life threatening disease undergoing treatment in Government hospitals. Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) provides health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per annum for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to poor and vulnerable families identified as per Socio-Economic Caste Census Database. There is no proposal to extend the coverage of these schemes to out-patient services.

(b): Sufficient funds have been allocated under AB-PMJAY and Umbrella scheme of RAN for providing the hospitalization and treatment services to entitled beneficiaries. The allocation under Budget Estimates (BE) 2020-21 for AB-PMJAY and Umbrella scheme of RAN are Rs. 6400 crore and Rs. 177.32 crore respectively. BE 2020-21 for Umbrella scheme of RAN includes Rs. 77.32 crore for the rare diseases component.

(c): Government has formulated draft of the National Policy for Rare Diseases 2020 and placed it on the website of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare inviting comments from all stakeholders. The draft policy inter alia provides for creation of alternate funding mechanism through setting up a digital platform for voluntary individual and corporate donors to contribute to the treatment cost of patients of rare diseases. Government has already initiated action to create digital platform for the purpose.

(d) & (e): Rs. 6400 crore was provided for AB-PMJAY in the BE 2019-20, which was reduced to Rs. 3200 crore at the Revised Estimates stage and Rs. 2993 crore was disbursed to the States/UTs.