Ayushman Bharat not for common man, actually a 'lifesaver' for private insurance firms: Cong
New Delhi, Mar 16: The Congress launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, alleging that his government's flagship health insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat is not for common man but actually a "lifesaver" for private insurance companies and hospitals.
Asserting that the government's claims about the success of the scheme are "fake and false", senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said beneficiaries can avail treatment costing only up to Rs 50,000 under this scheme on the premium of Rs 1,100 paid by the government.
It is "not Rs 5 lakh promised by Modi, he has exaggerated it 10 times," the Congress leader alleged.
"The claim that 'Modicare' has provided each household insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh is a huge fraud," he claimed.
He further said that 11 crore people across the country are already covered under respective health insurance schemes of various states and the Centre's Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY).
RSBY was started by the Congress-led UPA government, he added.
Ten crore people to be benefited under Ayushman Bharat are not over and above the 11 crore beneficiaries who are already availing benefits, he said, adding "Modi is trying to take credit for various health schemes through Ayushman Bharat."
Emphasising that the Ayushman Bharat Yojana or Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), which is also described as "Modicare", is conceptually wrong, the Congress leader said, "It doesn't cover diabetes and high blood pressure, the two common ailments in India."
"Patients will not have access to adequate healthcare under PMJAY because it excludes outpatient treatment, which 87 per cent of ailing persons undergo. Outpatient treatment is a serious financial burden that accounted for 63 per cent of the Rs 4,955 spent by households out of their pockets on health in 2014," he said.
The country does not need health insurance which benefits private players but health assurance which helps common man, which is possible through Right to Health as promised by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
