Farmers Movement Archive

Another U-turn, Telangana to adopt Ayushman Bharat scheme

HYDERABAD: Days after making a climbdown on the farm laws, the TRS government has made another U-turn by accepting the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat scheme and seeking to link it with the state’s Aarogyasri health scheme. Chief secretary Somesh Kumar informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi that chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has taken a decision to dovetail Aarogyasri with Ayushman Bharat at a video-conference held by the PM with chief secretaries of all the states on Wednesday. This sudden change in the state’s stance is in total contrast with its earlier stand. Telangana was among the few states in the country which refused to join the Ayushman Bharat scheme of Modi government. The CM had praised Aarogyasri on the floor of the assembly while drawing comparisons to Ayushman Bharat and had, on several occasions, projected the central scheme in poor light. His cabinet colleagues — Eatala Rajender and KT Rama Rao — had also tried to dub Ayushman Bharat as a poor cousin of Aarogyasri. During a high-level meeting at Raj Bhavan a year ago, health officials of the state and central governments discussed about the possibility of dovetailing Ayushman Bharat and Aarogyasri for the benefit of Telangana people. The latest decision comes close on the heels of KCR government deciding to do away with regulated farming and winding up purchase centres in villages. Opposition parties even said the decision indirectly supports the three farm laws brought by the Centre against which farmers have been protesting at the national level for over a month now. Health officials had earlier said that Aarogyasri provides coverage to 949 different treatment modalities for patients. The scheme provides insurance coverage to each family from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 13 lakh and in some specialised therapies, there is no capping on the cost of treatment. In contrast, Ayushman Bharat envisages extending coverage to families with insurance coverage limit of Rs 5 lakh. Ayushman Bharat has based its beneficiary selection on socio-economic caste census data in both urban and rural areas.

The Times of India

2020-12-31

Hyderabad