Understanding the Universal Health Coverage Framework and Access to Evaluating Assam’s Atal Amrit Abhiyan Through the Lens of Right to Health (Care)

Abstract

This paper provides a right to health analysis of Assam’s Atal Amrit Abhiyan (AAA) scheme by also situating it within promises made by the Assam Public Health Act, 2010. While this scheme is an important step in the direction of reducing catastrophic health expenditure for poor households and making costly critical care available, there, nevertheless, are scopes for further improvements, among others, in terms of its design, eligibility criteria, coverage to make it more compatible with the obligations under right to health. Right to health obligations under international law, particularly its concerns for non-discriminatory and equitable access, help us identify its shortcomings and provide the normative framework for suggesting improvements that can make the scheme potentially more universal in its scope and effective in achieving the goals it hopes to achieve.