The State Health Department wrote to the Centre on November 27 seeking adequate support to implement the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) for senior citizens.
According to the letter, the State is entitled to get ₹36.58 crore from the Centre for the scheme as per the 60:40 sharing ratio of Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka (AB-ArK) scheme. However, the Centre is yet to respond, Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said.
“Although the sharing ratio for the health scheme between the Centre and State should be 60:40, it is actually 25:75 as the State bears expenditure for around 1.12 crore families while the Centre is only funding the expenses of 69 lakh families as listed under the SECC 2011 census data.,” he said.
15.12 lakh families
Of the total AB-ArK beneficiaries, the State has around 15.12 lakh families with senior citizens as members. Of these, 9.22 lakh are SECC identified families (tagged families) and the remaining are over and above the SECC identified families (untagged families). “The Centre will provide the State with additional support at the rate of a mere ₹75 per family per annum for tagged families and ₹ 1,052 per family per annum for the untagged families. However, additional support to the untagged families would be provided only after the 69 lakh families out of l.l2 crore total families are tagged,” the letter stated.
Pointing out that tagging of families to the SECC data is not feasible, the letter written by Principal Secretary Harsh Gupta said as there are no common identifying parameters to link the SECC data with the data of l.l2 crore families, certain other methods or modalities would have to be used to identify the 69 lakh families.
No definite mechanism
“In the absence of any definite mechanism to link the AB-ArK beneficiaries with the actual SECC data, as per the next best approximation worked out by the State Health Department, Karnataka would require a total of ₹68.98 crore per annum for the senior citizens scheme. As the Centre has to provide 60% of this amount to the State, Karnataka is entitled to get ₹36.58 crore from the Centre,” Mr. Gupta told The Hindu.
The State has also sought exemption of having a separate registration for senior citizens to access the scheme benefits.
The contents of the State’s letter have come to light in the wake of the National Human Rights Commission issuing a notice to the Karnataka government in the case of a 72-year-old man who allegedly died by suicide as the State-run Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology declined to provide him ₹5 lakh cover under the AB PM-JAY.
The victim, who died on December 25, 2024, took the extreme step after the hospital denied him the benefit of the scheme stating that the State government orders in this regard had not arrived yet.
Published – January 10, 2025 10:02 pm IST
