A 72-year-old cancer patient reportedly killed himself in Bengaluru after being denied insurance benefits of the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
He was a retired state government employee who held an insurance card under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY). Being above the age of 70, he was eligible a health coverage up to Rs 5 lakhs.
Following a diagnosis of gastric cancer at Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology (KMIO) in Bengaluru, doctors suggested a major surgery after multiple rounds of chemotherapy. However, his Ayushman Bharat coverage could not be availed as the state of Karnataka has not implemented the scheme for senior citizens.
Though his family was ready to pay the amount for the surgery, the deceased senior citizen was distressed and took his life on December 25, the man’s kin was quoted by Times of India.
“Even though we had created an AB PM-JAY senior citizen card providing him (the deceased) with Rs 5 lakh annual cover, the hospital denied it saying the scheme did not apply in Karnataka. However, the hospital extended us a 50 per cent discount,” the family member explained.
In the background of the senior citizen’s suicide, the state health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao confirmed Ayushman Bharat Yojana had not yet been enforced in Karnataka and pointed towards the differences in the state and Union governments’ expenditure sharing towards the scheme.
The minister blamed the Centre for forcing them to bear extra burden of covering over 70-80 per cent of the scheme’s total expenditure, initially designed to follow a 60:40 (centre to state) ratio.
“Towards the existing Ayushman Bharat scheme, the Karnataka government’s outflow is 70 per cent, though it was first agreed as 40 per cent,” he said.
The Karnataka health minister added that while the Union government takes all the credit, the state is under tremendous financial pressure. “We cannot bear 75 per cent of the cost while they (Centre) bear only 25 per cent. I wrote to the Union government months ago, but there has been no response. I will write again,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Union government have asked for a detailed report from the Karnataka government on the account of the suicide of the senior citizen.
The Karnataka faction of the Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) blamed the Congress-led state government for the delay.
The stalling in the scheme’s implementation has denied access to cashless hospitalisation forcing patients and their relatives to pay enormous charges for medical care at private medical institutions.
