The Congress government in Chhattisgarh is discontinuing the central government’s Ayushman Bharat scheme which has till now benefited lakhs of patients with free treatment. As per reports, the Congress-led Chhattisgarh government will now start a state-sponsored scheme.
Health Minister TS Singhdeo presiding over a review meeting said that the financial provision made by the Centre in Ayushman Bharat scheme is ‘meagre’. He further added that Ayushman Bharat scheme is like an insurance scheme which has low output and higher cost. He said that the state is in process of forming another healthcare scheme which will cost less as compared to Ayushman Bharat and will also provide free medicines.
Till now Delhi, Odisha and Telangana have not implemented the Ayushman Bharat scheme. Recently, Mamata Banerjee also pulled West Bengal out of Ayushman Bharat scheme, accusing Modi of taking full credit.
In the Union Budget for 2018, NDA government announced the world’s largest healthcare scheme, targeted to provide an annual health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family for approximately 50 crore people. Soon after the announcement, a lot of myths about the coverage and cost of the scheme had started floating around social media, which were debunked by OpIndia.
On 23 September 2018, PM Modi formally launched the ‘Ayushman Bharat’ scheme, which provides cashless and paperless access to 1350 medical packages including surgery, diagnostics, daycare treatment and cost of medicines. The scheme also covers all pre-existing conditions, a feature which many private medical insurances do not provide. The WHO Director-General had even lauded the Ayushman Bharat scheme which had benefited as many as 7 lakh people within 100 days of its launch.
Since the launch of the scheme, many misinformation has been spread regarding the scheme. We had busted the myths here.