Modicare gets Rs10,000 crore allocation, to be fully functional by October

New Delhi: Announcing an allocation of Rs10,000 crore for the government’s ambitious health insurance programme, dubbed “Modicare”, Union minister for health and family welfare J.P. Nadda on Thursday said the scheme will be fully functional by October. The health ministry will start validating beneficiaries in April and ensure that the scheme is ready for implementation in four months’ time,” said Nadda. It will be the largest public funded health protection scheme in the world.” While Rs10,000 crore has been allocated to Modicare for 2018-19 and 2019-20, the government in February had initially announced an outlay of Rs2,000 crore. Learning from RSBY we decided not to issue cards, for saving time as it took more than one year to distribute cards in RSBY,” said Preeti Sudan, secretary, Union health ministry.