Kolkata, June 8 (IANS). West Bengal will join the central government’s Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme from Monday. For this, a memorandum of understanding will be signed between the state government and the National Health Authority in the national capital Delhi.
This agreement was signed by Union Health Minister J.P. This will be done in the presence of Nadda and West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. With this, West Bengal will become the 36th state to join the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
Ayushman Bharat Yojana was started by the Central Government in 2018. However, earlier the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government had refused to join the scheme as the state already had its own health insurance scheme in place.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had earlier announced that around 6 crore existing Swasthya Sathi beneficiaries in the state would be added to the Ayushman Bharat scheme and new applications would also be added under the Centre’s scheme.
It is noteworthy that before the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections, the Prime Minister had said in a rally that the then TMC government of the state had deprived people of the benefits of many central schemes, including Ayushman Bharat.
After BJP came to power, the process of implementing all the central schemes in the state was expedited.
While interacting with the media at the state secretariat Nabanna last month, the Chief Minister had said that due to the previous TMC government, the people of West Bengal were deprived of the benefits of many central schemes.
At the same time, the beneficiaries of ‘Swasthya Sathi’ scheme had complained many times that private hospitals hesitate in recognizing this card. On the other hand, private hospitals said that there is a delay in payment from the state government.
–IANS
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