Under Ayushman Bharat, huge disparities among states where Covid patients availed scheme
Has the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana scheme benefitted people during the Covid-19 outbreak, the worst health crisis in a century? The official numbers paint a murky picture.
With a population of more than 11 crore, Bihar saw only 19 people avail treatment for Covid-19 under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme, India Today has learnt through an Right to Information (RTI) filing. In Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, the figure stands 875 and 1,419 people respectively, showed data provided by the National Health Authority (NHA) of the government of India in response to the RTI request.
The Ayushman Bharat scheme was launched in 2018 to help around 50 crore Indians access good quality and affordable healthcare. Under this scheme, a beneficiary can avail free medical benefits up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year. Has this scheme benefitted people during the Covid-19 outbreak, which is clearly the worst health crisis in a century? The official numbers paint a murky picture.
India Today enquired about the number of Covid patients treated in different states under the Ayushman Bharat scheme during the two waves India has faced. In response, the National Health Authority said, “A total of 23.78 lakh (17.73 lakhs testing, and 6.05 lakhs treatments) admissions have been authorized for free testing and treatment under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) up to the first week of June 2021.” The number of people tested is almost three times more than those who were treated under this scheme.
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Three states -- Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra -- treated over 1.5 lakh people each under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. However, in Punjab, Gujarat and Daman, not a single patient reportedly availed of the scheme. Moreover, 10 states reported zero tests under the scheme.
In India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, only 975 people received treatment, and 1538 were tested under this scheme. In Bihar, which is the third most populated state, only 19 people got treatment and 105 got their tests done under Ayushman Bharat. In Bihar’s neighbouring state, Jharkhand, 27 tests were done and 1,419 people were treated.
NO OFFICIAL DEMARCATION BETWEEN FIRST & SECOND COVID WAVE
The second wave of Covid-19 infections devastated the country, debilitating the healthcare system as mutated strains of the deadly virus spread at a rapacious pace and claimed thousands of lives in a matter of weeks. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan and several top officials often refer to the second wave of the pandemic as a yardstick of the work done by the government during the 15-month-long crisis. But the NHA, which comes under the Centre, makes no such distinction officially.
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In response to our query in the RTI request on how many Covid patients were treated under the Ayushman Bharat scheme during the first and second wave of the pandemic, the NHA said, “There is no official information regarding clear-cut demarcation between first and second wave of Covid-19.”
The NHA also clarified a few days ago that the PMJAY health scheme had received Rs 9,481 crore from the finance ministry, out of which 8,542.3 crore has been utilised so far.