Union Minister and BJP Lok Sabha candidate for Amethi Smriti Irani today shared a video on Twitter where a man is recounting how his uncle died after Sanjay Gandhi Hospital allegedly turned them away because they were holding an Ayushman Bharat card.
आज मैं निशब्द हूँ – कोई इतना गिर सकता है यह कभी नहीं सोचा था।
एक ग़रीब को सिर्फ़ इसलिए मरने दिया क्यूँकि उसके पास मोदी का आयुष्मान कार्ड था पर अस्पताल राहुल गांधी का था। pic.twitter.com/fSqEpK5A6S
— Chowkidar Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) May 5, 2019
In the video, the man says in Hindi that they took their relative, an old man, to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital where they admitted him but when they took the Ayushman Bharat card, the hospital authorities allegedly said that this (Sanjay Gandhi Hospital) is Congress’ hospital, Rahul Gandhi’s hospital. “This is not Yogi or Modi’s hospital. Ayushman card is not valid here,” the hospital authorities allegedly said.
When Irani enquired about the old man’s health, he replies that he passed away on 26th itself.
The man then says one Dr Siddharth at Sanjay Gandhi Hospital turned away the ailing man and refused the treatment because of Ayushman Bharat card. He says that they pleaded to the doctor but he didn’t budge and suggested they could take the old man with them.
The Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Amethi was under the lens in 2017 too when the BJP alleged that the hospital’s guesthouse was being misused by the family and the party to hold political meetings when Rahul Gandhi is in Amethi.
Ayushman Bharat is the world’s largest state-sponsored welfare scheme in the world, which aims to provide health insurance coverage to more than 10 crore poor families in the country. As per the latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data, 8.03 crore rural households and another 2.33 crore urban households will be covered under this scheme.
Through Ayushman Bharat, the Modi Government aims to provide financial protection (Swasthya Suraksha) to 10.74 crores poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational categories of urban workers’ families (approx. 50 crore beneficiaries). The number of beneficiaries is almost equal to the population of Canada, Mexico and the US taken together. The pace of implementation by the Modi Government has been particularly impressive as nearly one-fifth of beneficiary families (2.05 crore) have already been given e-cards under the scheme, which offers a benefit cover of Rs. 5,00,000 per family per year. It covers medical and hospitalization expenses for almost all secondary care and most of the tertiary care procedures.
The most ambitious project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ayushman Bharat has been receiving admiration from across the world. The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Ayushman Bharat and called it a “great commitment”.
