Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) government has widened the scope of the Ayushman Bharat scheme due to the inadequacy of the number of procedures covered by it (1,000), by bringing in its own health insurance program YSR Aarogyasri under which insurance is provided for 1,446 more procedures.
Answering questions in a public session on ‘Future-proofing Health Systems’ at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Monday, Mr. Reddy said his government distributed 1.44 crore Aarogyasri cards and raised the annual income limit to ₹5 lakh to enable more households to get a total of 2,446 procedures done under Aarogyasri. Nearly 25 lakh households have benefited from the scheme in the past three years, he said.
Referring to the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr. Reddy said having learned quite a few lessons from the pandemic, the A.P. government laid greater emphasis on taking healthcare to the grassroots level through village secretariats, and an army of volunteers and accredited social health activists.
