Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday apologised for not being able to offer free hospital care to those aged 70 and above in Bengal and Delhi as the states have not implemented the Ayushman Bharat scheme “for their political self-interest”, prompting the Trinamool Congress and the AAP to challenge his assertions.

“I apologise to the elderly in Bengal, I apologise to the elderly in Delhi,” Modi said, referring to his government’s decision to bring all senior citizens aged 70 years and above under the Ayushman Bharat scheme that provides a health cover of up to ₹5 lakh per year for hospitalisation costs.

Speaking at an event where he launched multiple health-related projects, Modi said elderly citizens from poor, middle class or rich households would be able to benefit from the scheme launched by the Centre in 2018.

An elderly person registered under the scheme will get an Ayushman Vaya Vandana Card and become eligible for free treatment in government or empanelled private hospitals. The scheme will help lower the out-of-pocket expenditure of households on health, Modi said.

However, he said, the elderly in Bengal and Delhi would not be able to avail themselves of its benefits because the state governments had not joined the scheme. “For their political self-interest, they are oppressing their own ailing elderly,” Modi said.

Responding to Modi’s remarks, Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien said the Centre had “copied” Ayushman Bharat from Bengal’s Swasthya Sathi scheme.

“Bengal’s Swasthya Sathi started two years before Ayushman, 100 per cent paperless, cashless,” O’Brien said. “All pre-existing diseases are covered. There is no cap on family size, and parents from both spouses are included.”

Trinamool’s Kunal Ghosh said the Swasthya Sathi project had been successfully implemented in Bengal under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee several years before the Centre came up with its scheme.

“All the families in the state are covered under this scheme. They are benefiting. But the honourable Prime Minister did not mention any regulations of the central scheme or its conditions,” Ghosh added, appearing oblivious to the detail that Modi was talking solely about those above 70.

“Not everyone gets health insurance under that (central) scheme. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister is making baseless allegations after being politically rejected by both Bengal and Delhi,” Ghosh said.

AAP MP Sanjay Singh said the Ayushman Bharat scheme had stringent criteria that made it inaccessible to the common people.

“If you have a refrigerator at home, you do not qualify for Ayushman Bharat benefits. If you own a bike or have a monthly income above ₹10,000, you are excluded from receiving assistance under this scheme. In Delhi, even if Ayushman Bharat were to be implemented, not a single resident would benefit due to these restrictive conditions,” he said.

“Under Arvind Kejriwal’s administration, Delhi residents have access to immediate healthcare facilities without complex eligibility criteria. If a government hospital in Delhi provides a surgery date exceeding a month, the Delhi government covers the expense at private hospitals to ensure prompt treatment,” he added.

At the event, Modi virtually inaugurated a cardiac catheterisation lab at AIIMS Kalyani, which will help patients with coronary artery disease, chest pain, congestive heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary embolisms.

AIIMS Kalyani executive director Ramji Singh said: “This lab will help to visualise the heart’s chambers and arteries, making angiograms, angioplasty, ablation, pacemaker or ICD implantation easier.”

Modi also inaugurated a heart-lung machine or cardiopulmonary bypass machine that temporarily takes over the functions of the heart and lungs during surgery.

A doctor at AIIMS Kalyani said it is used to maintain blood circulation and oxygen levels in the body while the heart is stopped during heart surgery. “Heart-lung machines are used during open-heart surgery to repair the heart’s muscle, valves, or other structures,” he added.

During his speech, Modi noted that most people came from backgrounds where a serious illness was akin to a lightning strike on the entire family. He said there was a time when people would sell houses, jewellery or land to pay for treatment. Poor households, Modi said, often would have to choose between healthcare and other priorities for the family.

The Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (PMJAY) has since its launch authorised more than 68.6 million hospitalisations, according to the data dashboard.

The scheme has covered over 2.2 million cataract surgeries, 5,60,000 breast cancer treatments, 4,71,000 angiography procedures, 1,54,000 knee-replacement surgeries, 72,000 hip-replacement surgeries and 60,000 bypass surgeries, among other hospital-based procedures.