Hailed as a welcome step towards bringing healthcare closer to home, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the creation of 1.5 lakh health centres and providing health insurance cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year to 50 crore poor beneficiaries under the Ayushman Bharat Program of the Union Budget 2018.

Touted as world’s largest healthcare programme, Finance Minister announced Union Budget 2018 Flagship National Health Protection Scheme scheduled to cover 10 crore vulnerable families, with approximately 50 crore beneficiaries.

While Rs. 1,200 crore have been allocated for setting up health and wellness centres which will also provide maternal and child care, Rs. 600 crore have been allocated for TB patients, which will provide Rs. 500 per month to TB patients towards their nutritional support.

“The budget has also proposed to set up 24 new government medical colleges or hospitals by upgarding existing district hospitals. Maternity leave has also been extended from 12 weeks to 24 weeks. Giving a fillip to the MSME sector, an allocation of Rs. 3,794 crore has been allocated for the same,” Finance Minister in his budget speech said.