Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission a way towards Universal Health Cover by reaching the bottom of the pyramid to be a game changer or non-starter

Abstract: Affordable and quality healthcare has not reached to majority of Indians after 70 years of independence. Only 25 % of Indian population is insured under both private health insurance and government run insurance schemes. To address this issue the government had set up High Level Expert group in year 2010 under 12 Th Five Year plan, which submitted its report with focus on Universal Health cover as basic component for social security. Recently Union Budget 2018 came up with Ayushman Bharat Programme that plans to cover 10 crore BPL families under a health Insurance scheme. The paper attempts looking at various challenges to be faced in implementation of this scheme and role of various stakeholders required for its success.E Mail : manoj.pareek@manipal.edu (Manipal University