AAP's Priyanka Kakkar claims many Ayushman Bharat hospitals "exist only on paper"

New Delhi [India], October 30 : Aam Aadmi Party's national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar took a dig at Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, claiming that many of the empanelled hospitals under the central government's health scheme, Ayushman Bharat "exist only on paper."
"Prime Minister Modi lied again yesterday during a program. For AAP, health is an important issue. Ayushman Bharat is such that CAG has also exposed the scam related to it. Many of the empanelled hospitals of Ayushman Bharat exist only on paper," she said during a press conference.
"Around 26,000 hospitals have been empanelled, in which around 7,000 are only on paper, whereas in 4,000 hospitals there has not been any admissions," the spokesperson added.
Notably, the Ayushman Bharat Yojna is a scheme which aims to procure free access to health insurance coverage for families with low incomes. The scheme was launched in 2018 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
She further showed a letter purported to be written by Indian Medical Association of Haryana, saying that the government had not paid the dues of Ayushman Bharat, because of which treatment for patients under the schemes had stopped.
"Moreover, the hospitals which admitted poor people, they gave up and stopped the admissions due to non-payment. The Indian Medical Association of Haryana had written a letter saying that now patients will not be treated under Ayushman Bharat because the pending payment has not been made, Modi government itself had cut its budget," she added.
The AAP spokesperson also claimed that around 50 pc of patients in hospitals under the Delhi government are from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
"Around 50 per cent of people under Delhi government come from these two states, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. If Ayushman Bharat is such a good scheme then why do people from Haryana and UP come to Delhi for treatment? However, we welcome them because health is the most important issue for us."
Additionally, she also claimed the Delhi's health model is better than Ayushman Bharat.
She said, "You will be eligible under Ayushman Bharat only if your income is less than ten thousand rupees per month but there is no such compulsion in Delhi. In Ayushman Bharat, insurance of five lakhs is available for the entire family but in Delhi, no matter how expensive the treatment is, the Delhi government provides it for free. In the last eight years, 7.5 crore people have got treatment in Mohalla Clinic OPD."
Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra addressed the inauguration of various health projects at the All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) in the national capital on the occasion of 9th Ayurveda Day, PM Modi said that the national health scheme aims to provide comprehensive coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh for hospitalization.
During his address, he apologised to all elderly people above 70 years of age in Delhi and West Bengal, due to state governments' decision not to participate in the Ayushman Bharat Yojana.
"I apologize to all the elderly people above 70 years of age in Delhi and all the elderly people above 70 years of age in West Bengal that I will not be able to serve you. I apologize to them that I will know how you are, I will get the information but I will not be able to help you and the reason is that the government in Delhi and the government in West Bengal are not joining this Ayushman Yojana. Elderly in Delhi, Bengal won't be able to benefit from Ayushman Bharat as their governments not implementing it for political reasons," the PM said.
Earlier, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal also hit back at PM Modi over the non-implementation of the health scheme.
Taking to his social media X handle, Kejriwal posted, "Under the Delhi government's scheme, every person living in Delhi gets complete treatment free of cost no matter how much it costs - from a pill worth five rupees to a treatment worth one crore, the Delhi government provides complete treatment to every person free of cost. If you tell me, I will send you the names of lakhs of people who have benefited from this. Did people benefit from the Ayushman Bharat Yojana?"