One of the unique and biggest health insurance schemes of the world, Pradhan Mantri Jan Aryogya Yojana (PMJAY) covering around 50 crore beneficiaries in the country, is being launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said Chief Minister Raman Singh.
Handing over e-golden card to beneficiaries Jeevrakhan Maheshwari of Arang, Rajendra Kumar Yadav of Semariya, Bhojbati Sahu of Arang, Kumari Bai Dhruv and Basanti Bai, Chief Minister launched the PMJAY in Chhattisgarh at new circuit house in capital city Raipur on Sunday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had did the nation-wide launched of scheme from Ranchi, Jharkhand, the live event was watched by entire audience, including Chief Minister.
Addressing the launch ceremony, Chief Minister said that it would free the poor people from health related uncertainties to meet the expenses of diseases like heart, bypass surgeries, cancer, and organ transplantation among others as it would meet out expenses both the pre and post treatment. It would cover around 40 lakh beneficiaries in State.
In Chhattisgarh, already the scheme was being implemented in Dhamtari district as pilot project, the state gave enhanced information to national level regarding the software which had some hitches and its better utilisation, said Chief Minister. More than 1000, both the private and government hospitals of state have been registered under the scheme.
He said State has already prepared itself for its launch as even he had been in 7-8 meetings to discuss the intricacies of scheme and removing the bottle-necks.
Health Minister Ajay Chandrakar said that Chhattisgarh is the state which spends the most on health sector. He said that health budget from Rs 350 crore increased to around Rs 4300 crore. He also explained the preparations made for the Ayushman Bharat Scheme in State.
Giving welcome address health secretary Niharika Barik said that scheme would cover both medical and surgical expenses both before and after treatment. In state 428 private hospitals and 608 public sector hospitals have been registered under the scheme. It is a hybrid model where upto Rs 50,000 medical expenses it would be under Insurance Model while from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh it would be under Trust Model. The scheme was being implemented in 16 districts as pilot model and now it has been extended to 27 districts of State.
She said that response of scheme can be seen from fact that around 3000 beneficiaries have already taken the service while the software issue have been resolved. She said that a temporary call centre is operational which provides all information to the customer. She said Chhattisgarh has become the first in country to do live portal transaction. State Chief Secretary Ajay Singh also addressed the gathering.
