Bhubaneswar: BJP MPs from Odisha on Tuesday met the Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and looked for its intervention to implement the main health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), in the state.
Odisha has been his own scheme, Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY), not Ayushman Bharat, and the country plans to expand it to cover 20.80 lakh more families from September 1.
It will take the number of families discussed more than 92 lakh than the total 96 families of the country lakh.
In memorandum to Mandaviya, BJP parliamentary members said that by not implementing the central scheme, Odisha had lost 60 families of Lakh in need of pro-poor health care services.
They stated that the Indian economic survey of 2020-2021 recorded a significant difference in health care between countries that had implemented AB-PMJAY and who had not.
Odisha per capita expenditure for health care is Rs 1501 compared to the national average of Rs 1944 in 2020-21.
Similarly, the country has 59 hospital beds per one lakh population compared to 139 / one lakh people at all-Indian levels, parliamentarians write in memorandum.
Memorandum said Odisha had confirmed her travesty by saying that BSKY was better than AB-Pmjay.
However, while the central scheme with Pan-Indian portability can be used anywhere in this country by people from Odisha if implemented, the state scheme is mostly limited to facilities within the country.
“In the greater interest of Odisha, especially the large population of state migrants who cannot use the state-sponsored health care scheme in their workplace, and in preparation for the third wave of Covid-19 pandemic, we call for your personal intervention to direct The state government of Odisha to take the necessary actions to implement AB-PMJAY, “wrote MPs.
The Minister of Health Naba Kishore Das cannot be contacted for his comments.
Odisha has maintained that the state scheme includes more people compared to around 60 lakh families by the central scheme.
The amount of coverage in the state scheme is up to 10 lakh for women while the central scheme covers a fee of up to RS 5 lakh.
The state has hardened hospitals outside the country to ensure people get good quality care, the previous government said.