NEW DELHI: Nearly six crore people in West Bengal will now be covered under Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) after the state on Monday became the 36th State/UT to implement the Centre’s flagship health insurance scheme, completing its nationwide rollout.The move comes barely a month after the BJP government took office in the state and fulfils a key election promise. West Bengal had implemented PM-JAY when it was launched in September 2018 but withdrew from the scheme on January 10, 2019. Monday’s agreement marks the state’s return to the programme after more than seven years.An MoU for implementation of PM-JAY was signed at Vigyan Bhawan between the National Health Authority and the West Bengal government in the presence of Union Health Minister JP Nadda and Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.Officials said the rollout will benefit about 1.43 crore families in the state, comprising nearly six crore people. This includes 1.24 crore eligible beneficiary families, around three lakh families of ASHA and Anganwadi workers and helpers, and nearly 16 lakh families of senior citizens aged 70 years and above.Under the scheme, eligible families receive health cover of up to Rs 5 lakh annually for secondary and tertiary hospitalisation through a network of empanelled public and private hospitals across the country. Taking a political swipe at the previous state government, Nadda said Ayushman Bharat had once been met with a “Hobe Na” response in West Bengal, but had now become a reality for the state’s residents. He said he had personally urged the then government to continue with the scheme when it was launched in 2018, but the state subsequently opted out.Adhikari said the state’s return to PM-JAY reflected the benefits of a “double-engine government” and contrasted it with the previous administration’s decision to withdraw from the scheme in 2019. He said the people had elected a government that believed in working with the Centre and bringing central welfare programmes to the state.Nadda said PM-JAY beneficiaries have availed over 12 crore treatments worth Rs 1.82 lakh crore nationwide and that the scheme’s portability feature would particularly benefit migrant workers from West Bengal.Adhikari said the Centre had recently released Rs 527 crore to the state under the National Health Mission. The National Health Authority said the Centre’s annual contribution towards PM-JAY implementation in West Bengal is expected to be around Rs 1,000 crore, with beneficiaries able to access cashless treatment at more than 36,000 empanelled hospitals across the country.
