New Delhi, January 17: Billionaire-turned-philanthropist Bill Gates, who has championed the cause of universal healthcare over the past decade, has come out in support of the Indian government which had recently launched the Ayushman Bharat scheme -- aiming to cover healthcare expenses of 10 crore households upto Rs 5 lakh per year.

On the first 100 days of the scheme's implementation, Gates lauded the Indian government for succeeding in providing free healthcare to more than half a million persons in the economically weaker categories. Ayushman Bharat: Key Facts to Know About PM Modi's 'Game-Changing' PMJAY Healthcare Scheme.

"Congratulations to the Indian government on the first 100 days of @AyushmanNHA. It's great to see how many people have been reached by the program so far (sic)," Gates tweeted after Union Health Minister JP Nadda said that 6,85,000 beneficiaries have been benefited so far.

Similarly, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on January 3 praised Prime Minister Modi and the Health Minister for their visionary leadership which helped around seven lakh people avail benefits of the healthcare scheme.

"In its first 100 days, #India's ambitious #AyushmanBharat scheme has provided free care for almost 700,000 people. I applaud Prime Minister @narendramodi and Health Minister @JPNadda for their visionary leadership for #HealthForAll (sic)," Ghebreyesus tweeted.

On January 1, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley termed the government's flagship scheme Ayushman Bharat a "game changer" in healthcare and said on an average 5,000 claims is being settled every day since its rollout on September 23, 2018.

The scheme, which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Ranchi in Jharkhand on September 23, aims to provide health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family annually to more than 10.74 crore poor families or 50 crore people for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation through a network of empanelled health care providers.

The world's largest ambitious health care scheme, part of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), will cover medical and hospitalisation expenses for almost all secondary care and most tertiary care procedures. PM-JAY has defined 1,350 medical packages covering surgery, medical and daycare treatments including medicines, diagnostics and transport.

(With ANI inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 17, 2019 07:08 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).