PUDUCHERRY: Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), the health insurance scheme of the Government of India is not benefitting the poor people of Puducherry, said the opposition DMK members in Puducherry Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.
It is a flagship scheme of the Government of India to provide cashless secondary and tertiary care treatment from the empanelled public and private hospitals providing coverage to poor and vulnerable beneficiary families.
Raising the issue during the discussion on the vote on account, the Opposition leader R Siva said the legislators had held camps in their constituencies to assist people to get enrolled under the insurance scheme and getting cards so that could get be benefitted. However, in Puducherry, though the UT and the Central government have paid the funds due under the scheme, it is practically a non-existent scheme for the beneficiaries registered under the scheme, he added.
The health card issued under the scheme is not honoured by empanelled hospitals, including JIPMER, said Siva and DMK MLA AMH Nazim. Patients requiring major surgeries are sent back even by JIPMER authorities as the package amount for the treatment is low, they claimed.
For a Cardiac surgery, the package is only around Rs 80,000, which is far less than the amount provided under the Tamil Nadu government’s Health Insurance scheme for the poor, said Nazim. If patients from Tamil Nadu approach a hospital, they can avail themselves of the treatment, but Puducherry patients are denied, said Nazim. They also said the poor families, holding yellow ration cards are not getting benefits from the health insurance scheme, as they are not covered under the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
Urging the government to revive the Puducherry government’s medical relief schemes which had been a boon to the poor people, Nazim said the scheme was benefitting people for surgeries. He said the scheme was winded up on Jan 13, 2021, with around 1,200 applications pending. Now, Rs 6 crore has been allocated under the revised budget estimates for health insurance scheme, which could be utilised after getting the concurrence of the finance department for at least 500 patients, said Nazim.
Later, Director of Health and Family Welfare Dr G Sriramulu told TNIE that the issue has been sorted with JIPMER, and now Puducherry patients are getting treatment under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. JIPMER has set up a separate wing for the treatment of patients under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, said Dr Anandhalakshmi, Deputy Director of Family welfare and nodal officer for implementation of the scheme in Puducherry.