Sonia Gandhi launches Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayee Arogya Yojana (RGJAY) health scheme

Nagpur: Congress President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi underlined that Congress-led UPA Government is committed for the welfare of common man. She was addressing a function after launching Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayee Arogya Yojana (RGJAY) - a health insurance scheme for poor families in Maharashtra.
Sonia Gandhi said that the Congress-led UPA government was committed to provide better healthcare facilities to aam aadmi, particularly the poor, rural women and children. The Congress-led Government in Maharashtra was doing a yeoman service for people, who will greatly benefit from the health plan, said the Congress President. Sonia Gandhi praised the state government for extending the project, which was launched on a pilot basis last year in eight districts, to the remaining 27 districts.

The UPA Chairperson explained the main features of the scheme, which will provide coverage of up to Rs 1.5 lakh for 971 health-related procedures and 121 follow-up processes. Under the plan, the poor families will not only get free treatment including surgery, post-medical care and medicines, but the patients will get paid for return journey to their respective native places from hospitals, she said. Sonia Gandhi also expressed concern over the health of women, particularly in rural areas who, she said, have a tendency of hiding their ailments just to ensure their spouses do not face monetary burden of medical bills.

The Congress President also interacted with 78 select patient-beneficiaries of the scheme at the venue. A total of 2.11 crore families are eligible to be covered under the scheme. The cashless medical insurance scheme, which has been launched in eight districts of the state including Mumbai, will now cover a total of around 2.11 crore socially disadvantaged families.
The RGJAY will cover beneficiaries under the above poverty line and below poverty line categories and Antyodaya and Annapurna ration cards holders and people with an income limit of less than Rs1 lakh annually in 30 specialised categories and 972 procedures. The scheme covers hospitalisation expenses of Rs1.50 lakh per family on a floater basis annually in empanelled hospitals. The state government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Insurance Company (NIC).

Presently, the scheme is being implemented in eight districts of Maharashtra – Mumbai city and suburbs, Amravati, Nanded, Dhule, Gadchiroli, Solapur and Raigad – since July 2012. It covers around 52.37 lakh families, of which, a majority are in Mumbai alone. A total of over 1.05 lakh procedures have been performed so far in these eight districts under the scheme. The earlier scheme, Jeevandayee Yojana, which the new scheme will replace, covers only four procedures related to diseases of the brain, heart, kidney and cancer. The state government will pay a premium of Rs333 plus taxes per family to the public sector NIC.