Health cover for poor: Gzb worst among 6 districts

Ghaziabad: Ghaziabad ranks lowest among the six districts of Meerut division on the issuance of the Ayushman Bharat golden card, a health insurance policy of Rs 5 lakh for people from the disadvantaged economic background.
Against a target of issuing 7.40 lakh cards, the health department has issued just 1.24 lakh so far. The performance of the other five districts is also unsatisfactory. The Meerut divisional commissioner has now asked all six districts to conduct a review and increase the pace of issuing cards.
The Ayushman Bharat scheme was started about two and a half years ago. Since the start of the scheme to date, only 6,311 people in the district have got its benefit. In May, a total of 78 beneficiaries took advantage of the scheme. SImilarly, in the same month, the department could make golden cards for only 33 beneficiaries. In the letter, the commissioner said that Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana is an important scheme and during the review of this programme, it has been found that only 22% achievement of the division has been achieved, which is quite unsatisfactory.
The lowest achievement in the division is that of Ghaziabad, Meerut, Gautam Budh Nagar and Bulandshahr. The progress of the number of golden cards made last month differs from the progress of districts. As many as 8,621 golden cards were issued by Bulandshahr in a month, while only five cards by Hapur, 150 cards by Meerut, 33 cards by Ghaziabad and 92 cards by Gautam Budh Nagar.
“Similarly, there is a difference in the progress of the districts in monthly achievement of the beneficiaries treated under the scheme and the progress of the treated in hospitals is not satisfactory,” it read.
Chief medical officer Dr NK Gupta said, “Migration is very high in the district. The beneficiaries were identified on the basis of the 2011 census. Most of the beneficiaries have migrated since then and could not be found at the given address. We have traced 90% of the beneficiaries in rural areas. but only 35% of beneficiaries in urban areas were found.”