Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal’s recent announcement of free healthcare for Delhi voters aged 60 and above belies the BJP’s charge that it is neglecting the elderly population in the capital by adopting the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme.
On Wednesday, Kejriwal announced that the ‘Sanjeevani Yojana’, which promises free medical services to all citizens above the age of 60 in government and private hospitals, will not have an income limit or an upper limit on eligibility. “Be it rich or poor, treatment will be free for everyone.” We will bear the entire cost of treatment, he said.
Earlier in the year, AAP came under fire from Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he said Delhi and West Bengal were the two states that were yet to implement the scheme. He said that he was sorry for not being able to help the people of these two provinces.
While a concrete policy is yet to be drafted, officials said, the ‘Sanjeevani Yojana’ is seen as an extension of the Delhi government’s surgery referral scheme. Under this scheme, if a special surgery cannot be performed in the government hospital or if the patient waits for more than a month for the surgery, the patient is referred to a private hospital and the cost is borne by the government. According to government data, more than 12,000 people have benefited from this scheme between 2022-24.
“We have already been paying for surgeries in paneled private hospitals as per the eligibility of the scheme. It can be seen as an extension of this. Previously, there was a system where doctors in government hospitals had to refer to private hospitals. Now that process will be done away with,” said Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj.
Currently, 81 hospitals are on panel with the government to implement the surgery scheme. This does not include hospitals run by Max Healthcare, Fortis Healthcare and Apollo Hospitals. Bhardwaj added, “If necessary, the number of listed hospitals can be increased.
Asked about the economic impact of the new scheme, officials said the detailed document was yet to be drafted but the health department had prepared a preliminary report.
“We have seen that under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, the cost per patient is not very high. We expect the same to happen in Delhi,” the health minister added.
Union Health Minister JP Nadda’s reply in the Lok Sabha on December 6 included expenditure incurred under the Ayushman Bharat scheme in districts of Gujarat and Tripura.
In Ahmedabad district, in 2023-24, the data shows, the average expenditure per patient under the scheme was Rs 28,773. The number of beneficiaries benefited during the period was more than 1.49 lakh.
Senior AAP leader, Jasmin Shah posted on X that Delhi’s expenditure on health schemes was more than the Center’s allocation for Ayushman Bharat. “The AAP government in Delhi spends Rs 9,000 crore annually on its health schemes, while the entire country’s Ayushman Bharat scheme has an annual budget of Rs 7,000 crore…,” he wrote.
Asked whether the Delhi government plans to find a way to run the Ayushman Bharat scheme and its currently proposed schemes in parallel, Bhardwaj said the government is not against it. “We are not against adopting the plan. If it is suitable for Delhi, we will definitely consider it,” he told The Indian Express.
Delhi Chief Minister Atishi had said in November that she had directed health department officials to see if there was a way for the Delhi government to adopt the Ayushman Bharat scheme without compromising on the free healthcare model.
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