The tussle between the Centre and the Delhi Government over implementation of Modi Government's flagship health scheme, Ayushmaan Bharat, escalated further on Saturday after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to reject Union Health Minister Harshvardhan's offer to join the scheme, the latter termed the AAP chief's response as "flippant" and "callous".
Harshvardhan wrote a letter to Kejriwal enlisting various benefits of Ayushmaan Bharat scheme even while terming the AAP Government's Mohalla Clinic scheme an "utter flop".
The Union Minister's letter came a day after Kejriwal wrote to Harshvardhan, saying the State Government's health scheme is "10 times bigger and comprehensive" than the Centre's flagship Ayushman Bharat programme also called as Prime Minister Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY).
Kejriwal had said if the AAP Government's health scheme is closed and the Ayushman Bharat is implemented in Delhi, it will be a loss for the citizens of the national Capital.
The AB-PMJAY scheme aims to provide a coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually, benefitting more than 10.74 crore poor families for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation through a network of empanelled healthcare providers.
In the letter, the chief minister also drew a comparison between his Government's scheme and Ayushman Bharat scheme. Under the Ayusman Bharat, there is less than 10 per cent of beneficiaries in Delhi while in the AAP Government's scheme, every citizen is beneficiary which means Delhi's two crore population is covered.
"Those whose income is more than Rs 10,000 does not come under Ayusman Bharat, which means those earning less than minimum wages (notified by Delhi Government) is out of this scheme," Kejriwal said. The Chief Minister also said that in Ayusman Bharat, beneficiary will get treatment of up to Rs 5 lakh, but under the AAP dispensation's scheme, there is no such limit and hence, Government bears all expenses, even if it is Rs 30 lakh.
However, Harshardhan was least impressed. "Your (Kejriwal) claim that the Delhi Government is implementing free health care and therefore need not implement Ayushman Bharat is baseless. All your fancy schemes including the much touted Universal coverage Health scheme announced more than a year ago are still lying on the drawing boards awaiting implementation…"
The Union Minister also tried to make a point that while all states can claim to be providing free health care through Government hospitals, in reality citizens in Delhi will have to spend a lot from their pocket to get the so called "free treatment."
Also, said the Minister, the PMJAY uses state-of-the-art IT system and real data time so that treatment of the beneficiaries can be tracked everytime he/she comes for treatment while that was not so with the Delhi Government's health scheme.
Harshvardhan also pointed out that PMJAY offers portability and therefore beneficiaries can get benefits across the country. Whereas in the State schemes, there is no probability of benefits, so the benefits are no available to the beneficiaries if they chose to move out.
The Central Minister ,who also happens to be MP from Delhi, took a jibe at the Chief Minister saying that all the "bizarre schemes" announced recently were done with an eye on the impending Assembly elections in the national Capital.