Honest taxpayers of the country deserve the credit for helping the poor getting free treatment under the 'Ayushman Bharat' health insurance scheme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday.
The number of people who have benefited from the government's ambitious scheme has crossed the one crore-mark recently.
In September 2018, Modi had launched the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana-Ayushman Bharat that has been termed as the biggest government-sponsored healthcare scheme in the world.
In his "Mann ki Baat" radio address, the prime minister said more than one crore patients imply that more than one crore families of the country have benefited from the scheme.
"Do you know what more than one crore patients means? It means the cumulative population of two Norways and two Singapores have been provided free treatment in such a short time," he said.
He said the honest taxpayers deserve the credit for helping the poor benefit from the government-run programme.
"...I want to tell the honest taxpayers of our country that the credit for happiness and satisfaction derived by the beneficiaries treated free under the 'Ayushman Bharat' scheme makes you the rightful stakeholder of the benefic deed. Our honest taxpayer also deserves the "punya", the fruit of this altruistic deed," he said.
An important feature of the 'Ayushman Bharat' scheme is its portability facility. He said an underprivileged person from Bihar will get the same medical facility in Karnataka, which he would have got in his home state.
The prime minister noted that 80 per cent of the one crore beneficiaries hail from rural areas. About 50 per cent of the beneficiaries are women.
"And most of these beneficiaries were suffering from diseases which could not be treated with standard medicines. Of these, 70 per cent people have had surgical intervention," he added.
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