Kolkata, June 8 -- The National Health Authority and West Bengal government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in New Delhi for the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana in the state.
The MoU was signed in the presence of Union Health minister JP Nadda and West Bengal Chief Minister (CM) Suvendu Adhikari at Vigyan Bhawan. With this, West Bengal has become the 36th state and Union Territory in the country to implement the scheme, which provides health cover of up to five lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to eligible beneficiaries.
Both Nadda and Adhikari said that the previous Trinamool Congress government in Bengal had not implemented several other health schemes. CM Adhikari said that the National Health Mission - the biggest programme under the health ministry was not implemented in the state for the two preceding financial years.
"The previous government did not implement the Ayushman Bharat scheme. People of Bengal are now getting the benefits of the double engine government. The MoU was signed. Around 1.43 crore families in the state will get benefits of the scheme. Individual cards will be issued," Adhikari said.
The Chief Minister also said that those who currently reside in Delhi and other states but have their Aadhaar cards in West Bengal will also be able to avail the benefits of the scheme. While launching the scheme, Nadda said that people of the State can now access several health programmes, including the upgraded Ayushman Arogya Mandir and HPV vaccination for girl children. Taking a potshot at the previous Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal, he said people of West Bengal had been deprived of the Centre's health scheme for years because the then CM kept saying 'hobe na'.
Ayushman Bharat will extend financial protection against catastrophic health expenditure to millions of eligible beneficiaries in the State. It will also strengthen the State's healthcare ecosystem by enhancing access to quality and affordable healthcare services.
The scheme will cover an estimated 1.43 crore households in the state - including 1.24 crore poorest households, 15.95 lakh people aged 70 and above, and 3.06 lakh frontline health workers.
The Centre has already released Rs 976 crore for the implementation of the scheme in less than a month after the formation of the new government in the state. The state is set to receive a total of Rs 3,500 crore as support from the Centre for implementing its health schemes.
A nine-member team from the state has already visited Delhi for training while a five-member team from the National Health Authority visited the state to prepare for implementation of the scheme. Once implemented, the inter-state portability built into the scheme will immensely benefit migrant workers and "medical tourists" from the state. CM Adhikari said that there were nearly 1 crore migrant workers who travel to other states from Bengal, who will now be able to use their Ayushman Bharat card to get treatment wherever they are located.
Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Agarwal added that these migrant workers already have the Swasthya Sathi card, which was introduced by the previous government, but it is of no use in the other states. "People travel to Tata Memorial in Mumbai, CMC Vellore, AIIMS in Delhi, Bhubaneswar, and Cuttack, Shankar Netralaya, AIG and LV Prasad in Hyderabad. Now they will be able to get benefits in all these hospitals," he added.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.