Health insurance for all BPL families

The government proposes to bring all BPL families under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY).

Announcing this while presenting the Budget in Parliament on Monday, the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that Rs 350 crore, marking a 40 per cent increase over the previous allocation is being provided in the 2009-10 BE for this.

The RSBY was operationalised last year and the initial response was very good, with more than 46 lakh BPL families in eighteen States and UTs having been issued biometric smart cards, he added. This scheme empowers poor families by giving them freedom of choice for using health care services from an extensive list of hospitals including private hospitals.

Mukherjee stated that for the National Rural Health Mission, an increase of Rs 2057 crore over and above Rs 12,070 crore provided in the interim Budget is proposed, as this is an essential instrument for achieving our goal of Health for All.  -- PIB