In J&K shutdown, PM's health scheme grinds to halt, healthcare crisis grows

Ayushman Bharat patients cannot access free services. The private and government hospitals we visited were half empty. MRI machines could not get software updates

His eyes puffy, his spirits low as he lay on a hospital bed with tubes running out of his body to a dialysis machine that purified his poisoned blood and sent it back, shawl vendor Niyaz Wani contemplated how much longer he could afford his treatment.

Till August 26, 2019, Wani’s dialysis was free of cost at the 50-bed Khyber Hospital, one of Srinagar’s leading private medical institutes. He is a “golden card” holder under the prime minister’s key medical-costs reimbursement programme, the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (national health protection scheme), which--until