Margao: AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday hit out at BJP govt’s healthcare model, terming the Deen Dayal Swasthya Seva Yojana (DDSSY) poorly designed and demanding that the health cover be raised to Rs 10 lakh per family without eligibility restrictions.Addressing the media along with Goa in-charge Atishi, state president Valmiki Naik and other party leaders, Kejriwal said Goa’s public healthcare system had “completely collapsed,” with nearly 16 lakh Goans dependent on govt facilities despite inadequate infrastructure and a shortage of specialists.Kejriwal listed four shortcomings in DDSSY. The financial cover of Rs 4 lakh for smaller families and Rs 6 lakh for larger ones was inadequate for serious illnesses, he said, adding that the scheme covered only 447 procedures, excluding treatments such as PET scans and cataract surgery packages. He also pointed to delayed govt reimbursements that led hospitals to stop accepting DDSSY cards, and said procedure rates were still pegged to 2016 prices.He said enrolment under the scheme had fallen from 2.9 lakh cards in 2022-23 to 1.81 lakh in 2025-26, calling it proof that people were deriving little benefit from it.Citing AAP’s Punjab model, which he said offers Rs 10 lakh cover per family across over 2,350 treatment packages with timely advance payments to hospitals, Kejriwal said Goa, with one of the highest per capita budgets in the country, could replicate this if corruption was eliminated.He also flagged the absence of adequate super-speciality care outside Goa Medical College, forcing patients from South Goa to travel long distances, while South Goa District Hospital and Ponda sub-district hospital continued to face staff and infrastructure gaps.
