The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has recently released updates regarding the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri — Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), a transformative health insurance scheme launched in 2018.
Key Statistics for Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY
One of the critical insights from the statistics is the distribution and creation of Ayushman Cards. As per reports, women account for roughly 49% of the total Ayushman cards created and 48% of all authorised hospital admissions. As of December 2023, approximately 28.45 Crore Ayushman Cards have been generated since the scheme’s inception. Out of these, about 9.38 crore Ayushman Cards were created in 2023 alone.
Health Coverage and Admissions Under the Scheme
The AB PM-JAY scheme provides coverage to 55 crore individuals belonging to 12 crore families in India. Many states and Union territories implementing the AB PM-JAY have independently expanded the beneficiary base at their own expense. The total hospital admissions under the scheme count up to 6.11 crore, amounting to Rs 78,188 crores, of which 1.7 crore hospitals admissions worth over Rs 25,000 crores were authorized during 2023 (Jan-Dec).
About Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY
The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) is hailed as the world’s largest government-financed health insurance scheme. It offers a sum insured of Rs.5 lakh per family catering to secondary care and tertiary care. The Health Benefit Packages cover surgery, medical and day care treatments, along with the cost of medicines and diagnostics.
Basis for Beneficiary Selection
The PM-JAY scheme functions on an entitlement basis where the beneficiaries are selected as per the latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data. The National Health Authority (NHA) allows States/Union Territories to use non- SECC beneficiary family databases with similar socio-economic profiles for tagging against the leftover (unauthenticated) SECC families.
Funding and Implementation of the Scheme
The funding for the scheme is divided as follows – 60:40 for all states and UTs with their own legislature, 90:10 in Northeast states and Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal and Uttarakhand, and 100% Central funding for UTs without legislature.
The National Health Authority (NHA) has been assigned as an autonomous entity under the Society Registration Act, 1860 for effective implementation of PM-JAY in liaison with state governments. The State Health Agency (SHA), on the other hand, is the central body of the State Government responsible for implementing AB PM-JAY in their State.