L-G writes to CM for ‘failing’ to implement Ayushman Bharat scheme in Capital

Responding to this, Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj accused “mounting concerns” over the scheme’s efficacy, and accused Saxena of being “disconnected from ground realities”, while referring to a CAG report, citing revelations related to ineligible beneficiaries reaping its benefits.

“The eligibility criteria of the scheme is such that most of the Delhi residents would not be eligible for availing its benefits… In hospitals like GB Pant Hospital, almost half of the total surgeries are on patients from states wherein the scheme is operational, like the BJP-ruled states of UP and Haryana. It is very sad to see that though the L-G is boasting about the scheme, there is practically no success on the ground…”

Saxena wrote in his letter to the CM, “My Secretariat is constantly in receipt of requests and applications for financial aid for health purposes, almost entirely from the economically weakest sections… who are not able to avail of secondary and tertiary health services because of lack of a ration card or a voter ID in Delhi, and because they do not have the Ayushman registration either.” He, while disposing the file, questioned why the Delhi government, despite having given in-principle approval for its implementation back in 2018, and even having announced it in its budget in 2020, had “inexplicably stalled it for merely political reasons” and deprived “lakhs of poor migrants in the city” of health services under it.