Chidambaram raised questions on National Health Protection Scheme

Kolkata, Feb 27: Taking a swipe at the Centre, former Union Minister P. Chidambaram on Monday raised questions on the accessibility to the National Health Protection Scheme.

"I suspect what they will do (I don't have evidence), they will make access to the scheme so difficult, and the coverage so restrictive, that nobody will bother. For example, it may be said that if you want to access the scheme, you bring your income certificate, local residential certificate, get it attested by government servant. How will a person in Meghalaya where banks are kilometres apart, access the scheme?" Chidambaram asked at an interactive session organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce here.

In his Budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the scheme proposed to cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families providing coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.