Mumbai: A woman from Mumbai has publicly slammed the Central Government’s flagship health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), calling it a complete sham after a harrowing experience trying to admit her father to a hospital.
Her 67-year-old father, a retired SBI officer who served the bank for four decades and paid taxes diligently, developed a serious medical emergency around 5:30 AM. Hoping to avail of the much-publicised ₹5 lakh health coverage under Ayushman Bharat, the woman began calling hospitals listed under the scheme across Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai.
But instead of support, what followed was an administrative nightmare.
“I called 24 hospitals in total. Ten flatly denied being affiliated with Ayushman Bharat. Around six hospitals were completely unreachable, lines kept ringing or were out of service. The rest imposed ridiculous conditions, one said the scheme applies only for oncology, another said it was valid only for ICU care. Where does a regular patient go?” she said in a video on X.
Her ordeal has sparked fresh concerns about the transparency, accessibility, and actual implementation of the much-hyped scheme, which aims to cover over 50 crore Indians.
The woman, who belongs to a relatively well-informed and urban family, posed a critical question, “If a family like ours educated, internet-literate, connected, can’t get help in a crisis, how are daily-wage workers and poor families supposed to navigate this system?”
Though the scheme claims to offer free cashless treatment up to ₹5 lakh per family per year, ground-level experiences like this one suggest severe gaps in execution.
There has been no official response yet from the National Health Authority or state health officials regarding this specific incident.
This incident raises urgent questions about accountability and monitoring, especially when the scheme is projected as a cornerstone of the Government’s healthcare promise to the poor.
“Has anyone actually received this ₹5 lakh benefit when they needed it most?” she asked.
