As the new West Bengal government prepares to roll out the Ayushman Bharat scheme across the state, people covered under the local health policy — Swasthya Sathi — are also likely to be brought under the ambit of the Centre’s flagship insurance scheme, sources said.

The Ayushman Bharat sche­me is expected to cover around 1.43 crore poor families, elderly and fron­tline workers in Bengal. The Swasthya Sathi scheme, on the other hand, provides near-universal annual health coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per family to around 2.45 crore families not covered by government health schemes.

“These (Ayushman Bharat beneficiaries) are families for which the Central government will share the premium. The other residents of West Bengal covered under the Swasthya Sathi scheme will also be on-boarded to Ayushman Bharat, with the state government completely covering the premium,” said officials.

While the Swasthya Sathi scheme provides cover to all permanent residents of Bengal not covered by other government scheme, the Ayushman Bharat scheme has a specific list of beneficiaries — the poorest 40% as per the socio-economic caste census 2011, all elderly aged 70 years and above and frontline healthcare workers such as ASHA and Anganwadi workers, among others.

Usually, for the poorest and other beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat, 60% of the insurance premium is paid by the Centre and 40% by the state. For extending the cover to others, the state government will have to pay the entire premium. “The benefit is these residents will be able to access the national network of empanelled hospitals with the card,” said the officials.

There are over 36,000 empanelled hospitals under Ayushman Bharat and the scheme allows portability, meaning patients from one state can use their card in another to access healthcare services.

The newly formed State Health Authority is in the process of uploading patients’ and empanelled hospitals’ data to the national portal.

The official also added that with a BJP government in the state, Bengal is unlikely to go for co-branding, although the decision is yet to be taken. The newly formed State Health Authority is in the process of uploading patients’ and empanelled hospitals’ data to the national portal.