I have a few things to say about this. For one, this was formulated last year but no action taken so far. Budgetary allocation needs to be hiked several times, payouts to hospitals need to be sharply increased to make it viable for them to provide service.
livemint.com/news/india/ayu…
livemint.com/news/india/ayu…
Maharashtra govt extended MPJAY scheme to the entire state. What was the result? Clients still not getting serviced. Why? Because hospitals on the network have not been paid since the past eight months and have stopped providing service even for existing clients.
Why are they unable to pay? Because the scheme needs 3500cr to run smoothly, but has only 1500cr outlay. Undaunted by this, Maharashtra govt extended the scheme to entire state, without any additional outlay. Question must be asked whether they really intend to pay hospitals.
As if this were not enough, the UT govt has been sending letter after letter to COVID hospitals across the state that it is mandatory for them to service MPJAY clients and that they "shall" get empaneled. This being a voluntary scheme cannot be forced on hospitals.
When the state has no money to pay salaries of its employees, when existing service providers have not been paid since Jan 2020, when funding of MPJAY has not been increased despite massively increasing coverage, it must be asked whether govt has any intent of paying up at all.
