Under Ayushman Bharat, huge disparities among states where Covid patients availed scheme

With a population of more than 11 crore, Bihar saw only 19 people avail treatment for Covid-19 under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme, India Today has learnt through an Right to Information (RTI) filing. In Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, the figure stands 875 and 1,419 people respectively, showed data provided by the National Health Authority (NHA) of the government of India in response to the RTI request.

The Ayushman Bharat scheme was launched in 2018 to help around 50 crore Indians access good quality and affordable healthcare. Under this scheme, a beneficiary can avail free medical benefits up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year. Has this scheme benefitted people during the Covid-19 outbreak, which is clearly the worst health crisis in a century? The official numbers paint a murky picture.