New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written a letter to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, requesting him not to insist on replacing the city-state’s health scheme with the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat.
The letter comes three days after Vardhan had urged the governments of Delhi, Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal to join the Centre’s flagship health protection scheme, which is also known as the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY). The health minister had also spoken to the four chief ministers — Arvind Kejriwal, Naveen Patnaik, Mamata Banerjee and K. Chandrashekar Rao.
Vardhan had said it was important that the benefits of a “visionary scheme” like Ayushman Bharat should reach all the deprived and vulnerable people in the country.
“I will make the efforts to convince the remaining states and UT to bring the benefits of the scheme to their people and ensure that no eligible person is deprived of these benefits,” he had said.
Responding to this, Kejriwal Friday wrote that a good health scheme is already in place in Delhi, following on from Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain’s insistence last week that the Aam Aadmi Party dispensation would not implement Ayushman Bharat as it seeks to provide equitable treatment to all residents.
“Stopping it and implementing another won’t benefit anyone. If Delhi’s health scheme is stopped and Ayushman Bharat implemented, residents will be affected,” Kejriwal stated in the letter.
He also said if the union health minister sees something in Ayushman Bharat which is missing in Delhi’s health scheme, his government would take that as feedback and include it.
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‘People from Haryana & UP come to Delhi’
In his two-page letter in Hindi to Vardhan, Kejriwal said despite Ayushman Bharat being in place in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, lakhs of patients from these two states came to Delhi every day to get medical treatment.
He also pointed out that hardly any citizen of Delhi goes to Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to get treatment, which indicated that Delhi’s health scheme is functioning well.
Drawing a comparison between his government’s scheme and Ayushman Bharat, Kejriwal said: “Those whose income is more than Rs 10,000 do not come under Ayushman Bharat, which means those earning less than the minimum wage are out of this scheme.”
However, Indu Bhushan, CEO of Ayushman Bharat, told ThePrint: “This interpretation is entirely wrong and in fact misleading. The exclusion criteria referred to situation in 2011. For example, those who earned Rs 10,000 per month in 2011 are excluded and not those who earn Rs 10,000 now. The minimum wage in 2011 was much lower than Rs 10,000.”
Kejriwal further added that his government’s scheme reached out to two crore citizens. He also pointed out that while Ayushman Bharat covers treatment up to Rs 5 lakh, his government’s scheme doesn’t have a limit, so the Delhi government bears expenses even if the cost of treatment is Rs 30 lakh.
Deputy CM Manish Sisodia reiterated the points at a press conference Friday evening, saying several people in Delhi who owned a scooter or a fridge could avail the Centre’s scheme. He also said under the Delhi government’s scheme, patients at hospitals were provided medicines and free treatment and other consultation fees, unlike Ayushman Bharat.
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This report has been updated with additional information.