Uber partners with Ayushman Bharat to provide free healthcare to driver and delivery partners

Ride-hailing company Uber has announced a partnership with government healthcare scheme Ayushman Bharat to provide free healthcare to its driver and delivery partners.

According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the National Health Authority (NHA), the company will set up Common Service Centres (CSC’s) at Partners Seva Kendras across India under its Uber CARE initiative.

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At these centres, CSC’s Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) will help to verify the eligibility and issue ecards to the driver and delivery partners for the Ayushman Bharat Scheme.

This will cover healthcare benefits worth Rs 5 lakh for free secondary and tertiary treatment to each eligible family per year in 15,000 government and empanelled private hospitals.

Each of these hospitals is staffed by 'Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Mitras' or frontline healthcare workers who assist patients, run a help desk and check documents to verify their eligibility for the scheme.

Dr Indu Bhushan, CEO of Ayushman Bharat, said, “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."

The pre-hospitalisation, hospitalisation and post-hospitalisation expenses will be covered under the scheme. The driver and delivery partners will have to pay just Rs 30 to obtain an Ayushman Bharat card to provide access to the services.

Pradeep Parameswaran, President of 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."

He added that this partnership highlights the company's commitment to not just towards its driver and delivery partners, but also shows its resolve to provide healthcare benefits for their family members."

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