Kolkata, Nov 3 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that the total hospitalisations under “Swasthya Sathi”, the state government’s own health insurance scheme, achieved the one crore mark on October 31.

In a social media post, Banerjee also said that till that date, cashless health care benefit of Rs 13,156 crore has been provided to the citizens of West Bengal entirely from the state budget.

“Any resident of West Bengal is eligible to avail the benefits of ‘Swasthya Sathi’, if not covered by any other state-sponsored scheme. More than 8.5 crore residents of West Bengal are covered under the scheme,” she said in her post.

According to her, a robust IT platform and time-bound payment to hospital partners have ensured faster and reliable service delivery to its beneficiaries. “Government of West Bengal is always with you in your difficult times,” the Chief Minister added.

Her claims come at a time when the West Bengal government has come under frequent criticism for not allowing implementation of the national health insurance scheme, “Ayushman Bharat”, just to promote “Swasthya Sathi”.

The BJP leaders had been highlighting the main drawback of “Swasthya Sathi”, which health insurance under this scheme is only provided if the hospitalisation happens within the territory of West Bengal.

At the same time, since the “Swasthya Sathi” scheme was launched, there had been several instances of private hospitals or nursing homes refusing to honour the scheme. In several instances in the past, the state Health Department had issued cautions to such private hospitals or nursing homes.

Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing political rallies in West Bengal on several occasions in the past, criticised the state government for not allowing the implementation of the “Ayushman Bharat” scheme in the state.

On the other hand, the ruling Trinamool Congress had argued that any citizen of West Bengal could avail the benefit of the “Swasthya Sathi” scheme without any precondition of financial background, unlike the “Ayushman Bharat” scheme, which had some preconditions.

–IANS

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