West Bengal starts Ayushmaan Bharat
Bengal Government on Sunday officially launched the Aushmaan Bharat health insurance scheme, marking August 16 as the Aushmaan Bharat Day, replacing the Khela Hobe Diwas coined by the previous Trinamool Congress Government.
The scheme was launched at the iconic Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. Among others present in the programme were Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar, Bengal Health Minister Saradwat Mukherjee. Henceforward, August 16 would be organized as Ayushmaan Day, the Chief Minister said, adding all citizens aged 70 and above would qualify automatically regardless of income. He also assured that no eligible resident will be left out, with remaining portions of the population getting covered by a parallel State insurance scheme.
While the Aysuhmaan Bharat scheme would take within its ambit 3.39 crore people the remaining population will be covered by the Mukhyamantri Swasthya Bima Yojana., Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said. The beneficiaries of Ayushmaan Bharat will be able to access bout 14,000 hospitals throughout India and within Bengal the scheme will be available in 1930 hospitals, including 1303 private facilities, Health Minister Saradwath Mukherjee said.
The details of the Ayushmaan Bharat beneficiaries will be available in the Ayushmaan Bharat portal and the scheme will offer cashless coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per year to its recipients, who will receive coverage from three days before hospitalisation until 15 days after discharge.
Reminding that August 16 was notoriously known for the starting of the “great Calcutta killing” in 1946 which saw many people losing their lives to communal riots until a social workers Gopal Mukherjee stood up to save the Hindus Majumdar said that “the BJP changes history not by killing people but by bringing the genuine facts before them and making history remembered not for bad things as the “great Calcutta killing but for good things like the launch of a health insurance scheme like Ayushmaan Bharat.”
The Ayushmaan Bharat and MMSBY replace the Swasthya Saathi scheme brought earlier by the previous Mamata Banerjee Government.
