The famed Aarogyasri scheme, introduced by late YS Rajashekara Reddy during Congress regime in 2000s, is facing troubles even after the party came back to power in Telangana. The private hospitals offering health care services for Aarogyasri patients warned of stopping services from September 16 midnight, demanding clearance of pending bills by Revanth Reddy Sarkar.
The hugely popular scheme faced several hurdles during the BRS regime, as former CM K Chandrashekar Rao, made efforts to weaken the scheme, believing that successful continuation of scheme will only bring good name to Congress party. But due to the huge popularity of this health welfare scheme in public, KCR could not completely discontinue it. But instead of completely halting it, he has weakened it.
Congress leaders had repeatedly complained against former CM KCR for impairing Aarogyasri scheme and promised of strengthening it, if they come back to power. Infact, increasing the Aarogyasri cover from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, was one of the key promises of Congress party’s 2023 Assembly elections campaign.
While Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has successfully increased the coverage under Aarogyasri scheme from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, the implementation of the scheme at ground level needs a lot more attention. Many private hospitals have been reluctantly taking up patients as the government has been delaying paying of bills. Inpsite of repeated requests from private hospitals, Revanth Reddy sarkar has been delaying payments.
As the tiff between the Revanth Reddy Government and Telangana Aarogyasri Network Hospitals Association (TANHA) reached peak, hospitals warned of stopping Aarogyasri services from Tuesday midnight onwards. According to TANHA, Rs 1400 Cr bills are pending to about 400 private hospitals spread across Telangana.
Aarogyasri is one of the landmark schemes, which was instrumental in bringing Congress back to power in 2009. It is because of Aarogyasri that, late YSR earned a permanent place in Telugu people’s hearts. It is always an asset for Congress. When Congress took over from BRS in 2023, everyone hoped that Aarogyasri would regain its previous popularity. But it is unfortunate that the scheme is facing problems even under Congress rule.
