NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday took a swipe at the NDA government’s flagship Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme by claiming that Delhi’s healthcare system is “10 times bigger and comprehensive” than the Centre’s.
Kejriwal made this assertion in his response to a letter written by Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, to the CMs of Delhi, Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal urging them to join the scheme. Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain also took Kejriwal’s line saying the city doesn’t need the scheme.
“I am happy to tell you that Ayushman Bharat has already been implemented in Delhi a long time back. The Delhi government’s health scheme is 10 ten times bigger and comprehensive than Ayusman Bharat,” Kejriwal wrote in his letter to Vardhan.
Despite the health scheme being in place in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, Kejriwal contended, lakhs of patients from these two states come to Delhi daily to avail medical treatment. Hardly any citizen of Delhi goes to Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to get treatment, which indicates that Delhi’s health scheme is functioning well, he asserted.
In his letter, Kejriwal drew comparison about the benefits of Ayushman Bharat and the healthcare system in the national capital, saying that the both the schemes have the same purpose of providing healthcare to citizens.
“The healthcare system that we have provide free of cost services to all the people. This has been applauded internationally. World-renowned people have visited and applauded the effort of our government. In such a scenario, closing our healthcare system and adopting some other scheme will not be beneficial for the people of Delhi,” the chief minister wrote in his letter.
Later, Kejriwal’s deputy Manish Sisodia claimed the central government scheme has a “very limited approach”.
“We do not have any problem with Ayushman Bharat, but for the people of Delhi, the scheme has a very limited scope. If we find that we need to take help from the Centre’s scheme, then the AAP government will definitely take the help of Ayushman Bharat,” Sisodia told reporters at a press event.