10 lakh people have enrolled for Ayushman Bharat, massive scale up of health care: FM

The government has seen a massive scale-up in the healthcare sector in the last five years and 10 lakh people have been enrolled in the Ayushman Bharat scheme so far, Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said while tabling the Interim Budget in the Parliament on Friday.

"Under Ayushman Bharat scheme, close to 10 lakh people have already benefited for medical treatment under the scheme. Scores have been benefited from the reduction in the prices of essential medicines, stents, knee implants. Households have saved Rs 3,000 crore From Ayushman Bharat," he added.

The Union Minister also told Parliament that his government has announced the setting up of 14 new AIIMS since 2014. "Twenty-one AIIMS are operating or being established in India presently. Fourteen out of 21 AIIMS were announced since 2014. We are happy to announce the setting up of the new 22nd AIIMS in Haryana," the Finance Minister said.

The statement from Goyal comes at a time when India has an estimated 840,000 doctors -- one for every 1,674 people -- far fewer than the one per 1,000 people recommended by the World Health Organisation.

In his concluding remark, Minister Goyal stated that the "Transformation of Aspirational Districts" programme launched by the Government of India in January 2018 achieved its targets with improved performance in all indicators.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 won a thumping mandate promising a universal healthcare plan to protect poverty-stricken people. This Budget is the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government's last before the general elections in May this year.