National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS)

New Delhi: Government's premium on insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh for every eligible household under the new National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) would be around Rs 900-1000 per family annually, lower than the earlier estimate of Rs 1000-1,200, a senior NITI Aayog official said.

The official further said that representatives of all states with the exception of Tripura, where the assembly elections are on, participated in a meeting on NHPS, organised by the government think tank and the ministry of health and family welfare.

"Premium for availing health insurance cover of up to Rs 5 lakh under NHPS is expected to be around Rs 900-1000 annually for every household, which will be borne by the Centre and states," the official told.

On whether West Bengal participated in the deliberations, he said, "Officials from the state's health department attended NHPS workshop for states on February 15-16.

"They also gave presentations. Out of 30 states, the only state that did not participate in the deliberations was Tripura, which was in poll mode."

Earlier, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had reportedly expressed apprehensions about joining the NHPS.

About 1 crore people in West Bengal would be eligible to join the scheme, the official said, adding if the state opts out, it would lose Rs 600 crore of Centre's share.

Under the funding arrangement, the Centre will provide 60 per cent fund, while the remaining money would have to come from concerned states.

In case of special category states, the Centre will provide 90 per cent of fund.

Earlier, it was estimated that the premium for providing healthcare to an eligible family would be around Rs 1000-1200.

In his Budget for 2018-19, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had provided an initial corpus of Rs 2,000 crore for NHPC which aims to provide medical cover of up to Rs 5 lakh to over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families, constituting 40 per cent of India's total population.