"State Hospitals associations can't carry Aarogyasri Scheme any longer due to...": APCC Chief YS Sharmila

Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh) [India], August 14 : Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee Chief, YS Sharmila, said on Wednesday that the State Super Speciality Hospital Association has submitted a representation indicating that they cannot provide medical facilities to beneficiaries under the Aarogyasri Scheme due to a lack of payments from the government.
Sharmila highlighted that no payments have been received from the government since September 2023.
"So today in Andhra Pradesh, the state speciality hospital association released a note saying that they are owed money to the extent of Rs 2,500 crores from the government and therefore are unable to carry on the Aarogyasri Scheme any longer. The Aarogyasri Scheme belongs to the Congress party. It was and is an excellent scheme that helped the poor people to get even the biggest of the surgeries free of cost and it helped many lakhs of people," Sharmila said.
"So, the Aarogyasri Scheme was then a successful program and is a successful program even today and is also emulated by many other state governments not only in India but also in the US. Today, the state of the scheme in Andhra Pradesh is so pathetic that the doctors and the private hospitals altogether are owed money to the extent of Rs 3,000 crores including the private hospitals. And they are saying that now we do not have any more patience to keep waiting for funds, our overdraft limits are extended and we are not able to carry on this scheme anymore," she added.
Furthermore, she questioned why Chandrababu Naidu, knowing that the state was already in debt, did not take care of these obligations. The APCC Chief expressed confusion over why Jagan's government failed to pay the bills under Arogyasri and the fee reimbursement to students.