According to three officials who are aware of the plans, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may present an umbrella healthcare program on August 15 that would replace current flagship schemes.
The new program, tentatively called the PM Samagra Swasthya Yojana, aims to give everyone access to equitable, relatively affordable, and high-quality healthcare.
According to the officials who wish to stay anonymous, Modi will also introduce two more schemes: Heal in India, which will encourage medical tourism in India, and Heal by India, which will send doctors abroad to do medical treatments.
The PM Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), the PM Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), and the PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission will all be incorporated into the Samagra Swasthya Yojana (PM-ABHIM).
The new umbrella scheme will be a rebranding of the National Health Mission (NHM), or an advanced version of it, said a government official, one of the three people mentioned above.
"This new scheme will use a saturation approach, which means it will provide access to all healthcare services for everyone. It will be the largest healthcare plan ever, with a holistic and comprehensive approach. This umbrella scheme will be IT-enabled and include all of the government's major flagship schemes, including PM-JAY, ABDM, and PM-ABHIM,” said the official.
The second official claimed that the prime minister recently heard a thorough presentation of all three plans.
Heal in India will be the country’s first institutional mechanism to promote medical tourism, the third official said. According to the official, “the idea is to create a platform that will facilitate international patients coming to India for treatment. This will give liberty to foreign and overseas patients to choose hospitals in India as per the package rate, facilities, and kind of services in any part of the country they want to get the treatment.”
"The Heal by India project will give our doctors and other medical professionals the chance to perform procedures abroad, making way for a healthy world. We are being supported in the development of this platform by the hospital facility registry (HFR) and health professional registry (HPR) of the National Health Authority," the official continued.
In his ninth Independence Day speech, Modi is expected to spend a significant amount of time discussing ongoing and proposed measures in the healthcare sector.
