Odisha willing to join AB-NHPS if concerns are addressed: CM Naveen

KalingaTV News Network

Bhubaneswar: A few days after Odisha government objected on joining the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Scheme (AB-NHPS), CM Naveen Patnaik in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that Odisha government is still willing to consider joining the Central health scheme if its concerns are addressed.

Though Patnaik had not attended the Governing Council Meeting of the Niti Aayog on June 16, he had sent a letter to PM Modi apprising him on the issues of the State.

“About 40 lakh people (8 lakh families) who are already covered under the Health Assistance scheme of the State government will be left out if we take Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) data as a base,” wrote Naveen in his letter adding that the SECC data collected on the criteria fixed by the UPA government had grave lacunae and many poor were left out.

“Due to this reason, whenever our State has implemented any programme, we have gone for near universal coverage such as MAMATA, Rural Housing, State Pension for Old Age and NFSA,” Patnaik said.

The CM further stated,“Our state government has a mandate of providing near universal health coverage. In view of the same, our government has announced a health assurance scheme which will cover nearly 70 lakh families of the State.”

Last week, the Health Minister Pratap Jena had stated that the AB-NHPS agreed to include only 61 lakh families of Odisha, while the State’s requirement demanded coverage of 70 lakh families. Therefore the State announced Biju Swastha Kalyan Yojana.