Health Care for India's 500 Million: The Promise of the National Health Protection Scheme

India is the world’s second most populous nation with an estimated 1.27 billion inhabitants. In 2018, the Indian economy was estimated to be the seventh-largest in the world by nominal GDP and the third-largest in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms. Although robust economic growth over the past two decades has contributed to a decline in mass poverty, gains in other indicators of “well-being” such as access to health care or education continue to lag behind. To address these “failures” the Indian government recently announced an unprecedented National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), or in Hindi, the Ayushman Bharat Yojana (popularly known as “Modicare”), designed to provide health insurance coverage to roughly 100 million “poor and vulnerable families” (or an estimated 500 million individuals) through reimbursements. This paper provides an overview of this ambitious plan, in particular, its strengths and weaknesses and the complex economic and political challenges it faces.