Bengal govt blocked Ayushman Bharat, denied free treatment to poor: Sitharaman
Bengal govt denied poor residents, migrant workers free treatment by blocking Ayushman Bharat: Sitharaman
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday hit out at the TMC government in West Bengal, alleging that its failure to implement the Ayushman Bharat scheme denied poor residents, including migrant workers, access to free treatment across the country.
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While replying to a debate in the Rajya Sabha, the minister said Ayushman Bharat offers national portability, allowing migrant workers from Bengal to access free treatment in any of the more than 32,000 networked hospitals across India.
"Staying out of the national framework, which is Ayushman Bharat, stifles the economic potential of West Bengal's healthcare sector," Sitharaman said.
She further said that an estimated ₹785 crore would have been reaching Bengal, but the state did not want it.
"If that money were put into the healthcare of the people, their own money could have been spent on anything else. But they didn't because of their stubbornness, ultimately hurting the poor people of Bengal," the minister noted.
If West Bengal were integrated into the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) ecosystem, which supports crores of families across the country, Kolkata could have leveraged this patient volume to emerge as the primary medical hub for eastern and northeastern India, catalysing private infrastructure growth and modernisation, she added.
West Bengal is the only state which has not implemented the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
It has implemented Swasthya Sathi, an insurance initiative by the West Bengal government.
