“We gauged how Covid-19 would present itself in patients — high fever, pneumonia, respiratory failures. We already had medical packages for them. There is an extra cost of Covid-19 — isolation wards, personal protective equipment for paramedics and doctors. It is very difficult to calculate that so we left it to states to work them out with hospitals,” senior NHA official informed ET. Even after the variety of Covid-19 confirmed instances reached 78,000, solely 281 sufferers benefitted from Ayushman Bharat. NHA attributed this to the lukewarm response of state governments. Only Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have launched the packages until now. Most Ayushman beneficiaries had been in Maharashtra, which has most Covid-19 instances and deaths.
Though NHA didn’t have the precise variety of beneficiaries for Chhattisgarh and MP, officers informed ET they’ve been beneficiaries right here. “The number of beneficiaries could be higher as our database is not aligned with the states for Covid-19 packages. But the usage is low,” an NHA spokesperson informed ET. Many state governments are taking up non-public hospitals with a spike in instances.
“Maybe they will raise the demand for sharing financial burden of treating Ayushman beneficiaries later. The states are busy fighting the pandemic and haven’t raised the demand,” the spokesperson mentioned. Ayushman Bharat or PM-JAY gives well being protection as much as Rs 5 lakh per household per yr for secondary and tertiary hospitalisation to round 10.74 crore poor and susceptible households. It is an entitlement based mostly scheme which covers households based mostly on deprivation and occupational standards.
