The Odisha government on Monday signed an MoU with the National Health Authority (NHA) to roll out the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (ABPM-Jay).
It will be implemented in convergence with the existing Odisha government’s health scheme Gopabandhu Jan Arogya Yojana. It will provide a cover of ₹5 lakh per family per annum with additional ₹5 lakh for women members.
Odisha has become the 34th state to implement the scheme. Only Bengal and Delhi are yet to implement the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.
The previous BJD government led by Naveen Patnaik had objected to the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana and refused to implement it, stating that its own health scheme Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana was much better than the Ayushman Bharat Yojana.
After Mohan Charan Majhi government came to power, things changed swiftly. It changed the name of Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana to Gopabandhu Jana Arogya Yojana and started working to integrate the scheme with government of India’s health scheme.
Majhi said, “The cashless treatment facility will be provided at more than 29,000 hospitals across the country.” Odisha government is hopeful that it would address the health issues of 3.5 crore people,
The agreement was signed today at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi between addtional secretary, ministry of health and family welfare, chief executive officer of NHA Smt. L.S. Changsan and commissioner-cum-secretary of the department of health and family welfare, Government of Odisha Smt. Aswathy S.
