New Delhi, June 8: West Bengal will officially join the central government’s Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme starting Monday. A memorandum of understanding will be signed between the state government and the National Health Authority in the national capital.
The agreement will take place in the presence of Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda and West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. With this move, West Bengal will become the 36th state to join the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
Launched by the central government in 2018, the Ayushman Bharat scheme was initially rejected by the previous Trinamool Congress government led by Mamata Banerjee, as the state already had its own health insurance program in place.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari previously announced that approximately 60 million existing beneficiaries of the state’s health partner scheme would be integrated into the Ayushman Bharat program, with new applications also being accepted under the central initiative.
Notably, during a recent rally before the West Bengal Assembly elections, the Prime Minister stated that the then TMC government deprived people of the benefits of various central schemes, including Ayushman Bharat.
Following the BJP’s rise to power, the implementation of all central schemes in the state has accelerated. The Chief Minister mentioned last month during a media interaction at the state secretariat Nabanna that the previous TMC government had kept West Bengal residents from accessing many central scheme benefits.
Meanwhile, beneficiaries of the ‘Health Partner’ scheme have frequently complained that private hospitals hesitate to recognize this card. On the other hand, private hospitals claim delays in payments from the state government.
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