Since its announcement in Budget 2018, Ayushman Bharat has received considerable attention. It aims to achieve universal access to primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare through its two component: Health and Wellness Centres and Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogaya Yojana (PMJAY). This presentation by Ketki will give a brief overview of the design and implementation of PMJAY, a financial protection scheme which aims to cover 10 crores vulnerable families.

India’s health care is predominantly financed by households through out-of-pocket payments at the point of care. Recognising this, successive governments have introduced various measures including health insurance schemes to protect the poor from high hospitalisation costs. One such scheme introduced in 2008, was the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY). Meant for the poorest of the poor, the government subsidised the premiums so that patients from this population are able to get free hospitalisation care at select hospitals in their neighbourhood. Despite a 100% subsidy of premiums and the promise of free health care even in private hospitals, in 2011-2012 the enrolment rate in RSBY was 51.4%. The aim of our study was to identify the reasons for the poor enrolment.