Uber now offers free healthcare benefits to drivers

Uber and Ayushman Bharat has announced a partnership to facilitate free healthcare for tens of thousands of driver and delivery partners.

Indu Bhushan, CEO, Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, and National Health Authority (NHA) said, "Reaching out to the last mile beneficiary lies at the core of the goal of Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY of providing cashless quality inpatient care for serious illnesses with a view to protect more than 10 crore economically vulnerable families or 50 crore people from catastrophic healthcare expenditure that impoverishes more than 6 crore people every year."

He said, "Through this partnership with Uber, we hope to reach out to lakhs of people and their families in the driver and delivery community to bring them the benefits of this transformative scheme and help secure their health and economic security."

The company has also signed an MoU with the National Health Authority for setting up Common Service Centres at Partners Seva Kendras across India.

These centers will help verify eligibility and issue e-cards to driver and delivery partners for the Ayushman Bharat Scheme, which provides Rs. 500,000 of healthcare benefits for free secondary and tertiary treatment to each eligible family per year in government and impaneled private hospitals.

Driver and delivery partners will pay only Rs. 30 to obtain an Ayushman Bharat card to provide access to the services under the scheme. They will not be required to pay any charges or premium for pre-hospitalisation, hospitalization and post-hospitalization expenses, which are all covered under the scheme.

Each impaneled hospital is staffed by 'Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Mitras' or frontline healthcare workers to assist patients and facilitate their care at the hospital. They will also run a help desk and check documents to verify eligibility for the scheme.

Pradeep Parameswaran, President, Uber, India, and South Asia said, "Driver partners are at the heart of what we do and during our engagements with them, they have repeatedly mentioned the need for a stronger safety net, especially good healthcare. Our partnership with Ayushman Bharat, the largest government healthcare scheme in the world, caters to such a requirement. It underscores our commitment not just to driver and delivery partners, but also our resolve to facilitate healthcare benefits for their family members.''