The Tamil Nadu government on September 11 said it had signed an MoU with the Central government to implement Ayushman Bharat Yojana in association with state-run Chief Minister's Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMCHIS).

In a statement, the state said that its insurance scheme for the poor will be dovetailed into the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (National Health Protection Scheme) under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana. Tamil Nadu's health insurance scheme covers 1.57 crore families and provides coverage of Rs 1 lakh per year for 1,027 procedures, and Rs 2 lakh per year for 154 specified medical procedures. The state also has a corpus for treatment of eight high-end procedures.

According to the statement, implementation of the National Health Protection Scheme in association with the state insurance scheme will benefit about 77 lakh poor and vulnerable families in Tamil Nadu. The beneficiaries may be already covered under the CMCHIS. But if not covered, they will be included.

The statement said that the insurance benefit for all those covered under the state scheme will be increased to Rs 5 lakh as per the National Health Protection Scheme. All high-end procedures like cochlear implant, liver transplant, bone marrow and stem cell transplant, renal transplant, heart and lung transplant, auditory brainstem implant up to Rs 25 lakh covered by the corpus set up under the state-run insurance scheme will continue.