Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious healthcare scheme will create 10 lakh jobs in the health and insurance sector, an official said on Tuesday.

The scheme is going to improve the quality of healthcare in public services and also in the private sector, Indu Bhushan, the CEO of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana said while addressing an event organised by industry body Assocham here.

"The scheme will create considerable employment opportunities ... It will create 10 lakh jobs in health and insurance sector," Bhushan said.

The official also pointed out that India still has a very high level of expenditure on health compare to other emerging economies.

"Six crore people in India go into poverty because of out of pocket expenditure on health ... out of pocket expenditure is 2/3rd of total health expenditure in the country," he said.

Poor people tend to use less healthcare services, hospitalisation, Bhushan added. The PMJAY, also dubbed as 'Modicare', provides Rs 5 lakh annual insurance cover to more than 10.7 crore poor families and will be funded with 60 per cent contribution coming from the central government and the remaining from the states.

First Published:Oct 16, 2018 7:16 PM IST