Paper & Topic: GS II à Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

• Model Answer:

• Introduction:

• The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• People will be given a unique digital health ID that will contain all of their health records under this program.
• On August 15, 2020, the prime minister announced the National Digital Health Mission's pilot project from the Red Fort's ramparts.

• Body:

• Features:

• A health identity card for every citizen, a healthcare professionals register, and healthcare facility registries are the main components of this project, which is also known as the National Digital Health Mission or the PM Digital Health Mission.
• It will also aid in the protection of health-related personal information's security, confidentiality, and privacy.
• Every citizen's health ID will also function as a health account, to which personal health records may be linked and viewed via a mobile application.
• The Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) and Healthcare Facilities Registries (HFR) will serve as a central repository for all healthcare providers in both traditional and modern medical systems.
• Currently, six Union Territories are participating in the project's experimental phase.
• The project's statewide deployment coincides with the third anniversary of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, which is being celebrated by the National Health Authority (NHA) (AB PM-JAY).

• Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission's Potential:

• With citizens' cooperation, the mission will provide access to and exchange of longitudinal health records.
• The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission will play a significant role in addressing issues with low and middle-class medical treatment.
• Similar to how the UPI revolutionized payments, the new program will aid in the creation of interoperability within the digital health ecosystem.
• It will make it easier for doctors, hospitals, and healthcare service companies to do business.
• Furthermore, as part of the aim, the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission Sandbox will serve as a platform for technology and product testing, assisting organizations, including private players, in becoming a member of the National Digital Health Ecosystem and becoming a health information supplier.

• Challenges that may arise:

• 'Health' is still not recognized as a justiciable right by the mission. According to the proposed National Health Policy, 2015, there should be an effort to make health a right.
• One of the most pressing problems is patient data security and privacy. It must be assured that the patients' medical records are kept completely confidential and safe.
• Insurance firms' potential misuse of information may have an impact on people's ability to get insurance.
• If health information is available, firms may charge a higher premium or even deny coverage in some situations.
• Furthermore, prior to commencing the mission on a pan-India scale, lessons from the failure of a similar National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom must be learned, and technological and implementation-related inadequacies must be aggressively rectified.

• Conclusion:

• The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission will play a critical role in addressing the challenges that diverse classes of Indians, particularly the impoverished, confront when seeking medical treatment.
• It can be accomplished through bringing people together through technology, such as connecting healthcare staff, hospitals, and patients.
• For the health industry, this offers never-before-seen revolutionary potential, but care must be taken to ensure that the information is not disseminated mistakenly.