(Reuters) – India has allocated $1.54 billion for its ambitious health programme aimed at providing insurance cover for about half the population, the health minister said on Thursday, labelling it the largest such scheme in the world.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which has dubbed the scheme “Modicare”, announced in February the programme would provide 100 million families, or about 500 million poor people, with health cover of 500,000 rupees per year for treatment of serious ailments.
The federal budget had made an allocation of 20 billion rupees for the scheme for 2018-19, but officials had said more funds would be made available as the programme was rolled out.
Health Ministry officials said the government has allocated 100 billion rupees ($1.54 billion) for the “National Health Protection Mission” for 2018/19 and 2019/20.
