New Delhi: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates took to Twitter to congratulate India on Thursday on the first 100 days of the Narendra Modi government's flagship healthcare scheme Ayushman Bharat Yojana.

Responding to a tweet by Union Health Minister JP Nadda which showed that 6,85,000 have people availed free health care in just first 100 days of the scheme, the business magnate tweeted, “It’s great to see how many people have been reached by the program so far.”

The ambitious Ayushman Bharat or the National Health Protection Scheme, which was launched by Modi in August last year, aims to cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) by providing health cover up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year.

The expenses incurred is to be shared between the Centre and the state in 60:40 ratio.

Recently, Director General of World Intellectual Property Organisation Francis Gurry has praised the Centre's health scheme Ayushman Bharat and congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi on its success.

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

The total number of hospitals covered by this scheme is 16,000 and increasing steadily. More than 50% of the implementing hospitals are in private sector.

Jaitley had said in the first 100 days, 6.85 lakh patients have been provided hospital treatment and 5.1 lakh claimants have availed the scheme, for which payment has been released.

All states and Union territories, barring Delhi, Telangana and Odisha, have signed agreements with the health ministry for implementing the scheme.

With inputs from PTI