New health minister writes to the chief ministers of West Bengal, Telangana and Delhi urging them to join Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri jan Arogya Yojana
Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has written to the chief of West Bengal, Telangana and Delhi that have chosen to remain out of the Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri jan Arogya Yojana net, to join the NDA government’s flagship health protection scheme.
He also spoke to both West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to make his point. He is learnt to be trying to talk to Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao as well.
In his letter, the Minister said that it is due to clear and transparent processes, ease of access and benefits to a large section of the poor population that 32 states and UTs have accepted the scheme. The scheme has been running successfully providing financial protection to crores of people. Urging them to join the scheme, the Minister argued that the states would gain resources, national portability, state-of-the-art technological platforms, implementation systems, and world-class analytics systems at no additional cost. They will also benefit from a well-proven fraud monitoring and control system and exchange of key learnings and best practices of other states towards equitable healthcare. The Minister made it clear that financial resources will be made available to the States with adequate flexibility in the spirit of cooperative federalism.
“It is important that the benefits of the visionary scheme like Ayushman Bharat should reach all deprived and vulnerable people in the country. I will make all efforts to convince the remaining states and UT to bring the benefits of the scheme to their people…”
Taking stock of the situation that three States and one Union Territory (UT) are yet to join the Government of India in implementing AB-PMJAY, he said, “It is important that the benefits of the visionary scheme like Ayushman Bharat should reach all deprived and vulnerable people in the country. I will make all efforts to convince the remaining states and UT to bring the benefits of the scheme to their people and ensure that no eligible person is deprived of these benefits.”
The Minister pointed out that implementing AB-PMJAY would prove highly beneficial for not just the State but equally importantly to its people and all stakeholders. The ultimate beneficiary of this collaboration will be poor and vulnerable people. Due to the portability of services, the states will gain from the nationwide network of hospitals and will also help provide services in their own state to those from outside their states. The Minister assured full support and cooperation to States in aligning their own schemes with Ayushman Bharat.
