'Bengal health coverage better than Ayushman Bharat', claims Abhishek Banerjee

TMC's Lok Sabha member from West Bengal's Diamond Harbour Abhishek Banerjee took to Twitter and claimed that Bengal Government's medical insurance scheme Swasthya Sathi is better than Centre's Ayushman Bharat. Attacking PM Modi, Abhishek Banerjee said that he should take 'governance lessons' from Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. The Lok Sabha member also shared a chart comparing West Bengal's Swasthya Sathi scheme with the Centre's Ayushman Bharat scheme. 

"Comparison only corroborates"

Claiming that 'a comparison only corroborates what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow', Abhishek Banerjee claimed that the Ayushman Bharat charged the people Rs. 30 per person for the printout of identity details and under the Swasthya Sathi scheme, the same is free of cost. He further added that the Bengal government's scheme is fully funded by the state but the PM Modi-led central government's scheme was only 60% funded by the government. In a post on Facebook, the TMC MP, who is also Mamata Banerjee's nephew, claimed that the hospitalisation is very slow under the Centre's scheme and there is no such delay in the Bengal government's scheme. 

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"The smart card is issued in the name of the woman head of the family. Children and parents… get coverage. No such arrangement has been made under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. Hospitalisation procedure is very slow under Ayushman Bharat while under Swasthya Sathi there is no such delay," said Abhishek Banerjee in a Facebook post.

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"We are covering 10 crore people"

Earlier, Mamata Banerjee extended the benefit of the Swasthya Sathi scheme to all the families in the state. Speaking about it, the West Bengal CM had stated that Ayushman Bharat only covers about 1.5 crore people while the Swasthya Sathi covers 10 crore people. Under the Swasthya Sathi scheme, every family get the benefit of up to 5 lakhs cashless treatment in private hospitals.

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"All Bengali families will now be able to avail this benefit. Anyone who does not have health insurance can avail it. Treatment in our government hospitals is free in any case. This card will come handy in about 1,500 enlisted private health facilities. We had earlier planned to bring 7.5 crore people under this scheme, but now we extend it to 10 crore people. We are covering 10 crore people. For Ayushman Bharat, the card-holder is required to contribute. Here, the card-holder does not need to contribute," said Mamata Banerjee on Thursday.  

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(With input from Agencies)