Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi Scheme

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Overview:

Recently, the Delhi High Court instituted a case with respect to the grant of financial assistance under the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) scheme and said threshold income to claim benefit was prima facie “extremely low”.

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