BENGALURU: Karnataka has declined to join the Centre’s health insurance scheme —the world’s largest government-funded healthcare programme —announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley in the Union Budget targeting about 50 crore citizens from 10 crore poor and vulnerable families.The Centre’s National Health Protection Scheme, which the Centre hopes to implement by the end of this year, promises an annual cover of up to ?5 lakh per family for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.The Congress-ruled state is set to face Assembly polls in less than three months, and does not seem to be embracing a social sector programme tailored by the BJP. A few days ago, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced her decision to opt out of the scheme on the grounds that her state already has its own medicare programme, covering five million people.Karnataka is also arguing on similar lines. “We are already a step ahead of (Prime Minister) Modi,” state’s health & family welfare minister Ramesh Kumar said on Thursday, a day ahead of Karnataka’s election year budget. The state government, he said, already has a universal health scheme It is unclear where the CPM-ruled Kerala stands as finance minister Thomas Isaac has hailed the Centre’s insurance scheme, though he seems to advocate a different yardstick for finalising beneficiaries. In its own pre-Budget memorandum to the Centre, Kerala had asked for raising benefits under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY).Chief minister Siddaramaiah , in his Budget speech last year, announced bringing various health insurance schemes together and including all the families under university health coverage. “Yashaswini Arogya Suraksha Scheme will be continued as per the existing rules. But, this scheme will be brought under the control of health and family welfare department,” the CM had said in his speech on March 15, last year.Kumar, the minister, said the state will be formally launching its scheme on February 26. While calling the NDA regime’s programme as just a “pretension”, the health minister said his government’s programme was a well thought-out programme, and his department has worked for one year to device the scheme. The health minister suggested that the Centre, if it wished, could copy Karnataka’s scheme, but the state does not have to take anything from the Centre’s scheme.Asked if Karnataka would also provide a medical cover of up to ?5 lakh for a family as announced in the Union Budget, Ramesh Kumar said the question never arose, as the state never intended to have a cap. Karnataka will have no insurance. “Insurance is Modi’s business. Ours is assurance,” he said.State health minister said the Centre, if it wished, could copy Karnataka’s scheme which will be formally launched on Feb 26