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Indians have confronted the issue of healthcare services since the country’s independence. Today, India has over 69,000 hospitals open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are both governmental and private hospitals among these facilities. However, due to low financial circumstances, the majority of people in India continue to be denied access to these services.
More than 90% of the total labour force in the country is below the poverty level. These people, who have little financial resources, face several problems acquiring better medical services for their family members. Taking this into account, the Indian government introduced the RSBY policy. RSBY’s full form is Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana.
Purpose of the RSBY Policy
India devised this policy to solve the never-ending problem faced by individuals who could not even afford government healthcare. The RSBY or Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana card was brought in to provide free medical services to BPL cardholder families. It targeted all daily wage labourers and their families by giving them insurance coverage, the cost of which was to be borne by the government.
The insurance sum, a maximum of 30,000 rupees, was fixed. The benefits are available to RSBY members and their family members.
The one-time registration cost was fixed at 30 rupees. The remaining portion of the premium was to be subsidised by the country.
Modifications to the RSBY
The improvements were intended to make it more productive and to reach out to more individuals. In order to adapt to the current circumstances, the programme was modified in 2014 by including certain mandatory requirements, which are as follows:
- The presence of a bank account has been made necessary.
- The citizen using the policy must be registered on the Aadhar platform.
- The concept was to be expanded to include construction labourers as well.
- To create a policy in order to fulfil the purpose of all existing systems of the same type.
Benefits of the RSBY
The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, launched in 2008, went on to cover all the necessary aspects of the public healthcare requirements that any ordinary human would need in his life. The advantages were available to all the members connected by blood. The policy stresses delivering the best facilities to the labourers anywhere in the country with professional doctors, staff, quality medications, and infrastructure.
Maternity benefits
It includes natural unassisted childbirth, assisted childbirth, and delivery by caesarean surgery. It also includes the provision of cost for abortion but only in specific situations which cause a threat to the mother’s life; it does not cover voluntary abortion without any life-threatening reason.
Support money
The monetary support that is delivered under this scheme is up to 30,000 rupees. It also covers the family of the receiver. The policy also went on to deliver support for the diseases that were acquired before making the patient part of the program.
Privilege of choice
RSB gives its beneficiaries complete freedom to choose from public healthcare facilities or private hospitals. It makes the beneficiaries free from all the costs of the hospitals, preventing them from any exploitation.
All win
This approach was successful in creating a network from which all the connections benefited. The needy people receive the medications they require for themselves and their families.
Notable Characteristics of the RSBY
The RSBY has lots of features that all work together to provide a person with all the requirements sufficient for treatment.
The insurance companies
The incentives that drive the connections in the programme were the plan’s finest features. Under the system, the country pays all of the people’s premiums, and these agencies add as many individuals as they can to be members of this programme.
Reach
Another highlight was the breadth of its influence. Anyone who joins the initiative will be able to use the mediations anywhere in the country. This emphasis does not obstruct any movement of labourers who are part of this strategy.
Paperless transactions
Patients only need to bring a smart card to any place in the country that offers RSBY services. They need to produce their fingerprints in order to receive all of the scheme’s advantages. This procedure does not require any documentation or paper cash and is completely paperless.
Monitoring and evaluation
The plan has a strong mechanism for keeping track of its beneficiaries and their care. This information on the beneficiaries will be used in future government initiatives to help the individuals who they cover. Every resident covered by this programme receives a smart card, including biometric imprints and photos. All of the data is saved on the local servers for future use.
Anyone can make an online complaint to the government about how the programme is operating. The government has set up a complaint redressal mechanism to gather concerns about the scheme.
Conclusion
RSBY had played a key role in delivering free healthcare to persons living below the poverty level. After its inception, the plan distributed Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana cards to more than 10% of the country’s population by 2011. The RSBY was thereafter subordinated to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It was then integrated with the Ayushman Bharat Yojna. Since then, it has been a major part of the Ayushman Bharat scheme along with the senior citizen health insurance scheme.
