Address by Governor at the launch of the Ayushyaman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PMJAY)

Address by Shri CH. Vidyasagar Rao, Governor of Maharashtra at the launch of the Ayushyaman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PMJAY) at Sahyadri Guest House, Mumbai at 1200 hrs on Sunday, 23rd September 2018

Shri Devendra Fadnavis, Honble Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Vinod Tawde, Minister for Higher and Technical Education, Shri Subhash Desai, Minister of Industries and Mining, Dr Deepak Sawant, Honble Minister of Public Health and Family Welfare, Dr Pradeep Vyas, Principal Secretary, Public Health, Dr Sudhakar Shinde, CEO, State Health Assurance Society, senior government officials, doctors and paramedical staff, health workers, beneficiaries of Ayushyaman Bharat, invitees, ladies and gentlemen,

I am indeed happy to associate myself with the State launch of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.

This is a day of historic importance for the nation. Under the leadership of the Honble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi, the nation has launched Ayushman Bharat, the worlds largest government-funded healthcare programme.

Since attaining Independence, India has made various noteworthy achievements in the area of public health. Life Expectancy has more than doubled from 32 years in 1947 to almost 70 years now. We have also successfully reduced infant mortality and maternal mortality and completely eradicated Polio and small pox.

Ayushman Bharat, is by far the most significant and ambitious step towards realizing the goal of Health for All, and Universal Health Coverage, which have been envisioned in the National Health Policy of 2017.

Mention has been made that under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme, 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres are being set up across India. I am happy to state that Maharashtra has inaugurated 4 wellness centres yesterday.

Ayushman Bharat will make health services equitable, affordable and accessible.

Secondly, Ayushman Bharat involves cashless medical insurance cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for more than 10.74 crore poor and deprived rural and urban families.

What is important about the scheme is that enrolment is automatic and no forms are required to be filled. People can simply walk into the hospital and get treated. The treatment is cashless, which means that patients do not need to pay and can opt to be treated anywhere in the country.

I am happy to note that Maharashtra has already been implementing the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana since 2012. I have noted the fact that the scheme will continue to operate in integration with the Pradhan Mantri Jana Arogya Yojana in hybrid mode. I was glad to note that both the schemes will together cover around 90 percent of the population of Maharashtra.

Under this integrated arrangement, 83.74 lakh beneficiary families will get benefits of availing cashless medical facilities of upto Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for treatments in nearly more than 1000 procedures in 30 specialities. These include treatments like hip replacement surgery, knee replacement surgey, renal transplant, etc.

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a matter of concern that India is becoming the diabetes capital of the world. Thankfully, under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, detecting and treating diabetes will be easier. Early detection will improve the quality of life of the people and avoid various health complications arising out of non detection of diabetes.

Ayushman Bharat comes on the close heels of the Jan Aushadhi stores set up by the government. I have no doubt in my mind that Ayushman Bharat will spur increased investments in health sector and generate lakhs of employment opportunities.

As a peoples representative for more than four decades, I have seen how families are destroyed economically when one person in the family gets seriously ill. Many times, people have to sell their house and agricultural land if a family member suffers from life threatening disease.

According to one statistics, every year, 4.6% of the population is pushed below the poverty line as people meet their healthcare needs from their own pocket. With the launch of Ayushman Bharat, people will not be pushed into the vicious cycle of poverty and debt because of out-of-pocket spending on treatment. This according to me is the biggest benefit of the Ayushman Bharat Scheme.

As Guardian of Scheduled Areas in the State, I wish and hope that Ayushman Bharat will herald a new dawn of development for lakhs of tribal brothers and sisters, and other people living in the Scheduled Areas.

We must ensure that we have adequate medical and non-medical professionals in government facilities for the successful implementation of the Scheme. Secondly, we must harness all traditional systems of medicine like Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani and Homeopathy to achieve the goal of Ayushman Bharat in our State.

I congratulate Government of Maharashtra, the Department of Public Health and the State Health Assurance Society as we launch the Ayushman Bharat in Maharashtra. Let us together make Maharashtra a model State in the implementation of Ayushman Bharat yojana. I wish you all, success in your future endeavours.

Thank you

Jai Hind ! Jai Maharashtra !!