Cong plans to bring 'Right to Healthcare Act', says Rahul

Raipur (Chhattisgarh) [India], Mar 15 (ANI): Criticising Modi government’s flagship ‘Ayushman Bharat’ scheme, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday revealed his plans to bring a “Right to Healthcare Act’ that will guarantee certain minimum medical care to all the Indians while entailing increase in expenditure in the sector to 3 per cent of GDP.
He asserted that if the Congress is voted to power in the Centre, it is not going to run the ‘Ayushman Bharat’ medical insurance scheme the way it is being presently run.
 “In our manifesto, we are considering a ‘Right to Healthcare Act’, where we guarantee certain minimum healthcare to all Indians, increasing expenditure to about 3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and increasing the number of healthcare professionals," Rahul said while interacting with medical professionals here.
He stated this while criticising the 'Ayushman Bharat' programme, saying it “is a limited scheme” that is targeting a very limited number of healthcare issues.“It is a handout to 15-20 richest businessmen in India. That is not the type of scheme we are going to run. My main criticism of Ayushman Bharat is, it gives insurance without a proper support structure from hospitals and medical professionals," the Congress president said.
He also announced that the Congress government will increase the budget allocation for healthcare and education sectors, if comes to power. "Healthcare is, in a sense, a foundation. And we have to ensure that the foundation is built firmly. 
The Congress government in 2019 is dramatically going to increase the amount of money we put into healthcare and education," Rahul said. The Congress chief further opined that India is transitioning from a rural system to an urban system. 
“There is a massive shift that is taking place. It is a traumatic shift," he said.Rahul's campaign is a part of the upcoming general elections which is scheduled to start from April 11 and will go on till May 19. Counting of polls will take place on May 23. (ANI)