Jairam Ramesh says Narendra Modi’s Ayushman Bharat scheme is ‘fraud’ 

Jairam Ramesh.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, on Saturday, alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-hyped health scheme, Ayushman Bharat, is an incentivized fraud and was built on the wrong foundation, which allowed corporates and private hospitals to mint money.

While highlighting the purported deficiencies in the Ayushman Bharat scheme, Ramesh, in New Delhi, said, “It does not assure health care to ordinary citizens. It is a lifeline for private hospitals and insurance companies. It incentivizes fraud and over-treatment. Fraud, overtreatment and overdiagnosis are common risks in insurance-based healthcare. However, the government is making no serious investments on the capacity to monitor and regulate these issues even though the quantum of coverage is being ratcheted up to ₹5 lakh.”

Ramesh also said that the scheme did not cover treatment for diabetes, high blood pressure and back pain and added the number of households covered under this scheme are far lower than that covered under various other schemes.

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