Mega health scheme: Centre keen to ink MoU with state govt

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New Delhi: Union health secretary Preeti Sudan Monday said Odisha and seven other states in the country are yet to take a call on signing MoUs with the Union health ministry to roll out the ambitious Ayushman Bharat Health Protection Scheme in their states.
The secretary said the Centre has already signed MoUs (Memoranda of Understanding) with eight north Indian states while 12 others have aready given their commitment to sign the MoUs June 12 at New Delhi when all 20 states are likely to join a national-level session on Ayushman Bharat that aims to cover 40 per cent of the Indian population.
“Odisha is yet to take a call on signing an MoU with the Centre which is scheduled to take place in Delhi June 14. A total of eight states are yet to give their commitment for the scheme while many have given their consent and some even have signed MoUs recently,” Sudan told Orissa POST.
The delay by states to sign MoUs with the Centre to come onboard with the scheme is due to ongoing health insurance schemes that some run in their states. Odisha also runs some state level insurance schemes.
When asked about the issue, Union health minister JP Nadda said, “In March we had active consultations with all state government. They had apprised us about their ongoing state level insurance schemes and how to deal with the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat scheme.”
“On June 14, we will sign MoUs with maximum states after that the states will become active on that front. Some other states will join us on board. The IT system for the Ayushman Bharat scheme would be rolled out by July this year.
When confronted with the issue of states having their own state-level insurance schemes, he said, “That is why we are having different MoUs with different states. Some states have their own insurance schemes while some others have none and are willing to join Ayushman Bharat. We are holding discussions with all these states to look how to resolve it. Whether we will merge the state schemes with Ayushman Bharat would be decided after holding discussions with state governments.”
Phone calls and text messages sent by this newspaper to state health secretary PK Meherda seeking his response on the issue remained unanswered.