BHUBANESWAR:Even as the BJP blamed the State Government for not implementing the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat scheme, the response from CEO of Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Mission (PM-RSSM) seems to have prompted Odisha to roll out its own scheme for universal health coverage.
The ambitious National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), Ayushman Bharat is a health programme under PM-RSSM which aims at providing health coverage of `5 lakh to each family per annum and ensuring affordable healthcare.
After the scheme was announced during the Budget 2018-19, Odisha had raised several issues regarding implementation of the scheme and Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi had sent a letter to Union Health Secretary citing 11-point charter of demands.Padhi stated that over 69 lakh families (about 70 per cent of total population) are covered by Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and Biju Krushak Kalyan Yojana (BKKY) and both the schemes are very popular in the State.
“Since the Centre has indicated that it would support about 61 lakh families under the NHPS, it will leave over eight lakh currently enrolled beneficiaries. It is necessary to make provisions for left out families that meet the deprivation criteria identified by the Centre,” he had demanded.
The communication (accessed by The Express) between the CEO of PM-RSSM and Odisha Government, however, clears the air on the ongoing political slugfest.
Responding to Odisha Government’s demands, CEO of PM-RSSM Indu Bhushan stated that as the beneficiary criterion for PMRSSM has been fixed for families as per Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC), they can not agree to the request for inclusion of other left out beneficiaries. “The State is free to include additional categories under its own coverage,” he stated in a letter to the State Government.
Beneficiaries’ list apart, the State had also sought the Centre’s permission to collect Aadhaar details at the Gram Sabha rather than at the time of hospitalisation so as to ensure that the beneficiary is provided cashless service at the point of care without being overly burdened with verification process.
In his reply, the CEO clarified that the request for not verifying PMRSSM beneficiaries at the District Headquarters Hospital and below is not sustainable under the extant guidelines.
“As the Centre failed to address both the pertinent issues besides others, we decided to launch our own programme - Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana, which will cover more families besides the Free Health Services scheme with a focus on universal coverage,” said a senior State Government official.