National Health Authority To Replace National Health Agency
Approval has been granted by The Government of India for the formation of a new body named National Health Authority in place of National Health Agency for the better execution of the centre’s healthcare scheme for the poor . The government’s massive new health insurance scheme, announced in the Union budget in February 2018 was taken care by National Health Agency and now all the duties of National Health Agency have been passed on to National Health Authority. Health Minister welcoming the Union Cabinet’s decision stated that the most efficient and effective governance structure is what the world’s largest health care deserves.
It is not yet clear what functional effects these changes will have along with the statutory 
nature of changes. Instead of a Gazette notification, the change was made public via press release. The statement also came that existing budget including costs related to IT, human resources, infrastructure and operational costs approved by the Cabinet for the National Health Agency would be utilized by the proposed National Health Authority.
The National Health Authority has to deal with a number of tasks. Their first task would be setting up an operational guideline
of the scheme, second would be determining and negotiating premium prices with private companies to get the best value on government investment. Third would be setting protocol for treatment of illness and preventing fraud and penalties. By setting up this authority the key outcome that the government expects is an Increase in investment in the private sector as well as healthcare services, as the National Health Authority will be a strategic purchaser to set appropriate rates.National Health Authority’s power structure has also been changed. National Health Agency was registered as a society but now the NHA will have a governing board with an attached office to the union health ministry.
