Ayushman Scheme to be fully effective needs changes: MP Arora in RS

Ludhiana, December 12, 2023: MP (Rajya Sabha) Sanjeev Arora has spoken on the demand to make Ayushman Scheme more effective by enabling the poor to get full benefits in the ongoing winter session of Rajya Sabha.

He stated that from the official numbers of Ayushman Scheme the average spent on every patient treated under this scheme is around Rs 12000 which is exceptionally low compared to Rs 5 lakh per family admissible in the scheme.

Citing a reason behind the same, Arora mentioned in his address that the main reason behind this low amount is that patients are not getting critical care treatment and major surgical procedures under this scheme. He made an astonishing revelation that patients are forced to move to bigger hospitals to get treatment at their own cost.

Arora pointed out that patients are forced to get critical treatment at their own cost as very few bigger hospitals having all facilities are getting themselves empanelled under Ayushman Scheme.
 

He requested the government to make compulsory for empanelment for such hospitals especially those having Medical Colleges and also institutions taking Income tax exemption from government.

Further, he stated that as of date the average beds of hospital empanelled is 48 beds per hospital which shows that only smaller hospitals which may not have full facilities to treat critical patients are covered.

He added, “Also, bigger hospitals do not get themselves empanelled as the rates approved under Ayushman are too low.” He opined that if these rates can be increased to an acceptable level, it will help a lot. He urged the government to address the issue at the earliest possible.

Arora, who is also a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare has taken up this matter in various other platforms also. He wanted poor people to be enabled to get maximum benefit from the scheme.