New Delhi: The mega healthcare plan for the poor, as announced in the Budget, will cost about Rs 1,00,000 crore annually and curtail states' autonomy to design their own policies in the sector, says a research paper, authored by a professor at economic think tank NIPFP.
The paper's estimate is 10 times higher than the one made last week by Niti Aayog adviser Alok Kumar, who had said that the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) will cost around Rs 10,000-12,000 crore annually.National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) Assistant Professor Mita Choudhury said in the paper -- 'The National Health Protection Scheme in the Union Budget 2018: Is it in the Right Direction?' – that resource requirements for implementing NHPS are likely to be very high.
"Not only would such a scheme impose a heavy burden on both the Union and the states' exchequers, it will also curtail states autonomy to design their own policies in a sector that is constitutionally mandated to be in their domain," said the paper. It added that even if one assumes a "conservative 2 per cent rate of premium on the insured sum, the scheme would cost about Rs 100 thousand crores annually".