New Delhi: Uber, the world’s largest on-demand ride-sharing company  and Ayushman Bharat, the world’s largest government healthcare scheme, today  announced a partnership to facilitate free healthcare for tens of thousands of driver and delivery partners, who earn a livelihood by using the Uber platform.

 

As per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the National Health Authority (NHA), Uber, under its Uber CARE initiative for driver and delivery partners, will facilitate the setting up of Common Service Centres (CSC’s) at Partners Seva Kendras across India. CSC’s Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) at these centers will help verify eligibility and  issue e-cards to driver and delivery partners for the Ayushman Bharat Scheme, which provides INR 500,000 of healthcare benefits for free secondary and tertiary treatment to each eligible family per year in government and empanelled private hospitals.

 

Speaking about the partnership, Dr. 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. 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.”

 

Driver and delivery partners will pay only INR 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, hospitalisation and post-hospitalisation expenses, which are all covered under the scheme. Each empanelled 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.

 

Commenting on the landmark partnership, 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.’’

Over the past few months, Uber has launched several initiatives and forged some high profile partnerships to showcase its commitment to driver and delivery partners. In January, Uber launched the Driver Safety Toolkit, a comprehensive set of in-app safety features for driver partners. Earlier, as part of Uber CARE, driver and delivery partners were provided access to life insurance and micro loans.