The YogI Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has announced a trial run of the Ayushman Bharat scheme also popularly known as Modicare across all the districts in Uttar Pradesh (UP). The ambitious universal medical coverage scheme looks up to cover medical costs of up to Rs. 5,00,000 per family per year.

Siddharth Nath Singh, UP’s Health Minister, announced that 1.18 crore families are expected to benefit from Modicare in the state with the beneficiaries mostly hailing from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The beneficiaries, total number of whom could be in the region of six crore people, have been identified as per the socio-economic caste census.

Furthermore, the UP Government in a bid to ensure that beneficiaries of the scheme are not put to any further hassle has plans to run the Modicare scheme under the ‘assurance’ and not ‘insurance’ model. The State Agency for Comprehensive Health and Integrated Services (SACHIS) has been mandated as the trust which would manage the claims of beneficiaries thus easing any procedural hassle that beneficiaries could face under the scheme.

It was also announced that each enrolled hospital would an Ayushman Mitra who would aid beneficiaries in completing the claims process. About 1000 hospitals are said to have registered under Modicare in UP alone. The Yogi government has already sanctioned Rs 440 crore as its share of the total budget for Modicare in the state which is slated to be in the region of Rs 1000 crore.