Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi Scheme

About Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi Scheme

• It was set up in 1997 and it is a central sector scheme.
• It provides one-time financial assistance to poor patients living below State/UT wise threshold poverty line and suffering from life threatening diseases relating to heart, kidney, liver, cancer, etc. for treatment at any of Super Specialty Government hospitals/institutes.
• The Umbrella Scheme of RAN has three components as under:
  • Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) – Financial assistance for treatment of life-threatening diseases relating to heart, kidney, liver, etc. at Government hospitals/institutes having Super Specialty facilities; (Maximum financial assistance is Rs. 15 lakhs)
  • Health Minister’s Cancer Patient Fund (HMCPF) – Financial assistance for treatment of cancer at Regional Cancer Centres (RCCs)/ Tertiary Care Cancer Centres (TCCCs) and State Cancer Institutes (SCIs); (Maximum financial assistance is Rs. 15 lakhs)
  • Financial assistance for poor patients suffering from rare diseases – for specified rare diseases for treatment at Government hospitals/institutes having Super Specialty facilities; (Maximum financial assistance is Rs. 20 lakhs).

Q1) What is a rare disease?

It is a health condition of low prevalence that affects a small number of people compared with other prevalent diseases in the general population.

Source: Income threshold for Arogya Nidhi aid ‘extremely low’, says Delhi High Court

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