Delivering the presidential address at the 12th Convocation programme at NIMHANS, he said the NUHM scheme will be implemented in 450 cities and towns. Out of the 22 crore people living in these cities and towns, nearly 5.5 crore people will be covered. “The focus is mainly on slum areas,” he said.
Later, elaborating on the scheme, Mr Ramadoss said that USHA (Urban Social Health Activist) will be deployed for every 2,000 people, who will look into various features of the scheme. Urban health centres would be set up for 50,000 people. “The centre will have doctors, nurse and mid-wife,” he said.
The minister said Mahila Arogya Samithis, which will be set up shortly, will cover 100 households. The initial seed money for this is Rs 5,000 per annum.
The main competence of the programme is health insurance for the urban poor and slum dwellers, where the premium will be paid by the Central government. Private sectors and NGOs will be roped in, he said. “The envisaged cost for the project is Rs 8,000 crore for the next four years,” he added. This programme is taken in those cities where the population is above one lakh.
To a query, he said that there is a proposal to set up Centre Drug Authority, which is similar to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in US. It will have 10 sub-divisions.
It will look into the various aspects such as licensing, vaccination, medical devices and Indian System of Medicine.  “This is already placed in the Parliament. The standing committee is gathering information on these,” he added.