Kolkata, Feb 20 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday provided a ‘detailed explanation’ on why Swasthya Sathi, the state’s own health insurance scheme, is unique in the country, adding that the greatest advantage of the scheme is its universal nature.
“We provide health insurance under the Swasthya Sathi scheme without any restriction like the income limit of that family. At the same time, the Swasthya Sathi card is registered in the name of a lady member of that family. These make the Swasthya Sathi scheme unique in the country,” the Chief Minister said at the foundation laying ceremony of Narayana Health City in the northern outskirts of Kolkata on Thursday afternoon.
The Chief Minister’s explanations on why Swasthya Sathi is unique in the country comes in the wake of all-round criticism of allowing implementation of a similar health insurance scheme of the Union government christened Ayushman Bharat.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister also claimed that, like Swasthya Sathi, most of the developmental schemes of the state government are universal in nature because of the absence of income restrictions for the beneficiaries.
According to her, around nine crore people in West Bengal are currently covered under the Swasthya Sathi scheme.
“My government has brought revolution in the health sector of the state. We provide treatment and medicines totally free of cost. We are really proud of that,” the Chief Minister said.
Speaking on the occasion, Mamata Banerjee also read out details of the achievements in the health sector during the current Trinamool Congress regime.
“During our tenure, 14 new medical colleges and hospitals and 42 new super-specialty hospitals had been set up in the state. There have been 13, 392 new health centres in the state. We have arranged for critical care units in all the districts which were not there previously. Earlier there were just six new special newborn care units in the state. The number is now 71,” the Chief Minister claimed.
–IANS
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