Ayushman Bharat Scheme Will Boost Healthcare in Bihar

Principal secretary of state health department Sanjay Kumar on Saturday said the Ayushman Bharat Yojana of the Center would go a long way in creating a proper healthcare system in Bihar, as only 1 percent of the state’s gross state domestic product (GSDP) is spent on the health sector. Kumar was chairing a discussion on ‘Prospects of Ayushman Bharat’ on the concluding day of the international conference on public finance, organized by the Center for Economic Policy and Public Finance (CEPPF) of the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI). Kumar said only 6.2 percent of the state’s population is covered under the health insurance sector. The state also has the highest dependence on private healthcare system when compared to other states in the country, he added.

Principal secretary of labor resources department Dipak Kumar Singh said a large chunk of the middle-class people has been kept out of the purview of the PM’s Jan Dhan Yojana. “Just 25 percent of the country’s population is covered under the health insurance scheme,” he added. In the panel discussion on climate change, chief economist of International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), UK, Paul Steele said farmers living in stressed areas on account of climate change – especially in drought-prone areas – have been making expenditures on seeds that are suited for the drought-prone areas. “People living in urban areas have also been spending money to build disaster-resistant houses,” he added. Senior economist at World Bank Stuti Khemani said politics has been an inextricable instrument to bring into mainstream the traditionally weaker sections and to prioritize expenditure of the public money. – TOI