STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also a renowned medical professional and Diabetologist, on Friday asserted that Ayushman Bharat is so far the world’s best health insurance scheme and credit goes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for having conceptualised it.
This is possibly the only health insurance scheme in the world which offers the option of seeking insurance cover even for a pre-existing disease, like for example, if today a person if detected having cancer , he can thereafter go and get himself insured to receive the financial support for treatment.
Addressing the Economic Times Doctor’s Day Conclave on the eve of Doctor’s Day here today, Dr Jitendra said, by bringing in Ayushman Bharat, India has moved from sectoral and segmented approach of health service delivery to a comprehensive need-based health care service.
The Minister said, this is the unique scheme, where one can register for pre-existing diseases also. He informed that Jammu and Kashmir was the first UT to have universal coverage of the health scheme irrespective of the economic criteria.
Responding to queries about some irregularities in the implementation of the scheme, he said, we are at the initial stages of implementation and the government is open to make suitable changes as required in the scheme in due course.
The Minister also emphasized that integrity is a big factor in a vast heterogeneous country like India and slowly but surely this health insurance scheme will become a model for the world to emulate.
The Minister said that during the COVID even the West started looking up to India in search of immunity building techniques drawn from Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, Unani, Yoga, Naturopathy and other oriental alternatives.
He said, however, even after the COVID phase passes out, an optimum integration and synergism of different streams of medical management are the key to successful management of various diseases and disorders which may not be otherwise completely amenable to treatment by any single stream of medicine or the treatment given in silos.
The Minister said, we must work together to ensure ‘Digital Health for All’, which is a pre-condition to achieve ‘Health for All’.