New Delhi:
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has congratulated the Indian government for the successful completion of the first 100 days of the healthcare scheme Ayushman Bharat from its launch.
The response from Gates came after Union Health Minister JP Nadda wrote on Twitter that 6,85,000 beneficiaries have availed free health care in just first 100 days of the scheme and the number is rising rapidly.
"In just first 100 days of #AyushmanBharat, 685000 beneficiaries availed free health care & the number is rising rapidly," Nadda had tweeted.
World Health Organization (WHO) director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on 3 January had praised Prime Minister Modi and the health minister for leadership which helped around seven lakh people avail themselves of benefits of the healthcare scheme.
"In its first 100 days, #India's ambitious #AyushmanBharat scheme has provided free care for almost 700,000 people. I applaud Prime Minister @narendramodi and Health Minister @JPNadda for their visionary leadership for #HealthForAll (sic)," Ghebreyesus had tweeted.
On 1 January, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley termed the government's flagship scheme Ayushman Bharat a "game changer" in healthcare and said on an average 5,000 claims are being settled every day since the rollout of the scheme on 23 September, 2018.
The scheme, which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Ranchi in Jharkhand on 23 September, aims to provide healthcare cover of Rs five lakh per family annually to more than 10.74 crore poor families or 50 crore people for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation, through a network of empanelled health care providers.
The world's largest ambitious healthcare scheme, it claims to cover medical and hospitalisation expenses for almost all secondary care and most tertiary care procedures.
The world's largest ambitious health care scheme PM-JAY will cover medical and hospitalisation expenses for almost all secondary care and most tertiary care procedures. PM-JAY has defined 1,350 medical packages covering surgery, medical and daycare treatments including medicines, diagnostics and transport.