Chief Minister Arunachal Arogya Yojna (CMAAY) spread wings across Arunachal

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ITANAGAR: Chief Minister Arunachal Arogya Yojna (CMAAY) which provides health insurance coverage to the citizens of the State is gradually spreading its presence across the state.

The CMAAY has been merged with Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), a similar scheme of the government of India that aims to help economically vulnerable Indians who require healthcare facilities.

Till now 99,147 families have enrolled under CMAAY and PMJAY which covers 4,30,308 people in the State.

The Itanagar Capital Region (ICR) followed by Upper Subansiri and East Siang has witnessed maximum enrollment. 8,604 people have availed benefits amounting to Rs 20, 93, 20,716. Several major hospitals from across India have been empanelled under this. RKM Mission hospital Itanagar, TRIHMS Naharlagun and Bakin Pertin Government Hospital Pasighat along with 32 other government hospitals are empanelled within the State.

To cater to tertiary care, 27 hospitals outside the State also have been empanelled. Some of the reputed hospitals empanelled under CMAAY are CMC Vellore, NEIGRIHMS Shillong, DY Patel hospital (Mumbai), GNRC, B. Borooah Cancer Institute, Health City (in Guwahati) etc.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CMAAY Dr Nabam Peter stated that Chief Minister Arogya Arunachal Society has been set up by the state government for efficient implementation of the scheme.

The governing body of the Society is chaired by the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh with the Minister of Health & FW as Vice-Chairman and the Executive Committee of CMAA Society is chaired by the Head of Department in Health with CEO of CMAAY as Member Secretary along with other members.

Dr Peter also gave a brief account of how the idea of health insurance came to the forefront in the state.

He shared that "the establishment of a State Illness Assistance Fund under of India with 50% of the contribution made by the state government in 1996, seeded the idea of health insurance which led successive chief ministers to tinker around with a scheme for poor.

Gegong Apang took initial steps in 2006 when he was a chief minister but it couldn't materialize due to a lack of in-house experts. The idea took shape in 2012 when a token amount of Rs 3 crore was allotted in the Annual Operating Plan (AOP) of the state budget for the Financial Year 2012-13 and set up a Committee of Secretaries at the behest of the then Chief Minister Nabam Tuki.

The Committee took a cue from similar successful schemes like Rajiv Arogyasri of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme and issued the policy for Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister's Universal Health Insurance Scheme (APCMUHIS).

The APCMUHIS was launched as a flagship programme of the state government on 17th September 2014. The scheme envisaged providing universal and cashless health benefits up to Rs.2.00 lakhs as insurance coverage. After initial success, the scheme faltered and by December 2016 the scheme collapsed.

A committee set up by Chief Minister Pema Khandu under the chairmanship of then minister Dr Mohesh Chai to examine the collapse of the APCMUHIS identified many factors, some of which were-lack of in house institutional knowledge on health Insurance, quoting low premium by the insurance company, lack of defined guidelines for adjudication, delayed or non-payment to hospitals by the insurance company and lack of trigger-based medical audits.

The committee made many recommendations which led to a restructured scheme and were launched as Chief Minister Arogya Arunachal Yojana (CMAAY) on July 25, 2018.

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