Centre committed to providing affordable healthcare: Minister

Jammu, March 17

Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Sunday that the Central Government has provided affordable healthcare, and over the last 10 years, a series of steps have been taken in this direction.

Addressing the ‘Doctors’ Sammelan’ organised by the BJP in Jammu, Jitendra Singh, who was the chief guest, said, “One of the distinct examples of this is the Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme, unique of its kind in the world in the sense that it provides insurance even for a pre-existing disease.”

Ashok Koul, organising secretary of the BJP, presided over the function. He explained about the party’s campaign to gather input from different groups of professionals while making the party manifesto for the coming election.

Jitendra Singh said, “To provide more accessibility to government-sector medical colleges for affordable medical education, the number of MBBS seats has increased by 79% from 51,348 to 91,927, while the number of MD seats has increased by 93% from 31,185 to 60,202 in less than 10 years.”

He said, “In a quantum jump, from 145 government medical colleges in 2014, India now has 260 such GMCs, while the number of AIIMS in the country went up to 23 in 10 years.”

Talking about India’s vaccination programme, Jitendra Singh stated that India has emerged as a world leader in protective healthcare. Earlier, the country wasn’t taken seriously as a health care provider, he noted.