Bhubaneswar: Odisha Government has spent around Rs 6,584.63 crore under its flagship health assurance scheme Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY).
BSKY is now renamed as Gopabandhu Jan Arogya Yojana (GJAY) by the new BJP Government.
According to official data, the State Government has made an expenditure of Rs 6,584.63 crore including reimbursement to private hospitals and other expenses under the BSKY since its launching on 1 February 2019 to 30 June 2024.
The State has spent Rs 41.12 crore during the two months of 2019-20 financial year while it goes up to Rs 79.42 crore during 2020-21 and to Rs 380.57 crore in the 2021-22 fiscal.
Similarly, the spending under the ambitious health assurance scheme again increased to Rs 1,907.02 crore during the year 2022-23 while the spending increased to all time high to Rs 3,204.45 crore during the last financial year (2023-24)
Moreover, an expenditure of Rs 971.80 crore has been made under the BSKY scheme during the first three months (April to June) of the current financial year, the official data said.
Out of Rs 971.80 crore spent in the current financial year, Rs 41.22 crore utilized in the month of May and Rs 79.41 crore in June this year.
BSKY is an umbrella scheme of the State government, which aims to provide universal health coverage, with special emphasis on the health protection of economically vulnerable families.
Under the BSKY, annual health coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family and Rs 10 lakh for the women members of the family, is provided for over 3.56 crore people of 99 lakh economically vulnerable families in the state.
A total of 9,509 hospitals including 8,530 government and 979 private hospitals have been included under the scheme where the beneficiaries can avail free treatment.
BSKY is one the major popular schemes of the previous BJD Government.
After BJP got majority in the last Assembly election, there was a hue and cry among the people as a senior BJP leader had announced that the BSKY will be closed down and Ayushman Bharat scheme will be replaced by the scheme.
After such a chaos, some private hospitals have also started denying admission of the BSKY beneficiaries and the former Chief Secretary P K Jena has been forced to come with a clarification and strict instructions to the hospitals.
The BJP government has just renamed the BSKY as Gopabandhu Jan Arogya Yojana and made provision of funds for the scheme.
During the Budget discussion, senior BJD lawmaker Arun Sahoo dared the BJP government to close down the scheme, if they have the courage to face the people.