Forget 'Modicare', Delhi residents may soon get 'Kejricare'! Here's Arvind Kejriwal govt's Ayushman Bharat counterplan

In a bid to counter the expected political gains of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government's flagship Ayushman Bharat scheme (also dubbed as Modicare by many), Delhi government led by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is likely to announce a similar, maybe bigger, health cover scheme for the state's residents ahead of next year's General Elections. The scheme may be announced by January 2019. The name of the scheme has not yet been finalised. The scheme would aim to provide more reimbursements to beneficiaries. 

Delhi government has refused to implement the centre's Ayushman Bharat scheme, which has been rolled out in most of the states of the country. Reports say Kejriwal government had objected to the name of the Ayushman Bharat scheme, that is PMJAY. Also, the Delhi government wants that such health scheme should benefit all Delhi residents, not just a few lakh residents. 

Ayushman Bharat scheme aims to provide health coverage of Rs 5 lakh each to 10 crore families of the country. The scheme is paperless and a beneficiary doesn't have to make any payment for getting registered under the scheme. 

Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM), which has been renamed as AB-PMJAY, was launched pan-India by the Prime Minister from Jharkhand on September 23.

Since its rollout over 47,000 people have already availed the benefits of the scheme, which has been touted as the world's largest health insurance programme while over 92,000 have been given Gold cards, according to  Dinesh Arora, Deputy CEO of National Health Agency.

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PMJAY aims to provide cashless and paperless access to services for the beneficiary at the point of service.

More than 14,000 hospitals both public and private, have been empanelled for the scheme. As many as 32 states and union territories have signed MoUs with the Centre for implementing the programme. 

Apart from Delhi, Telangana and Odisha have not opted for the scheme.