90 L Benefitted From Centre's Convergent Health Schemes

HYDERABAD: Over 90 lakh families in the state benefited from the Central government’s Ayushman Bharat scheme, as well as the state’s Aarogyasri scheme, MoS for health and family welfare Satya Pal Singh Baghel said in the Rajya Sabha’s Q&A session on Wednesday.

The Union health ministry’s report stated that in the state of Telangana, 29,02,621 families were covered under the Central and state health insurance schemes in all. While 6,107,379 families benefited from the state health insurance scheme of Aarogyasri, a total of 90,10,000 families were covered in the converged health insurance schemes, which could account for around a fourth of the state’s total population.

In the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh, 61,47,562 benefited from the schemes supported by the state and Centre, with the state insurance scheme covering 80,23,378 families and a total of 14,170,940 families benefitting from various converged schemes, the report stated.

The minister said that the cost of health services decreased by one-and-a-half to two times for beneficiary families, who would have had to spend out of their pockets for health expenses. The beneficiaries could save on services related to hospitalisations across the rural and urban populations, who were covered under the scheme, the report stated.