NEW DELHI, Jan 14 : The government’s flagship health insurance scheme AB-PMJAY has crossed the milestone of generating 30 crore beneficiary cards, according to an official statement.
The Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), being implemented by the National Health Authority (NHA), aims to provide a health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to 12 crore beneficiary families.
The Health Ministry said Uttar Pradesh tops the list of states with the highest number of Ayushman cards at 4.83 crore, followed by Madhya Pradesh 3.78 crore and Maharashtra 2.39 crore.
As on January 12, eleven states have more than one crore Ayushman card holders.
Ayushman card creation is the most fundamental activity under the scheme and concerted efforts are being continuously made to ensure that every beneficiary has it, the ministry said.
“As a result of the persistent efforts, the scheme has reached the feat of 30 crore Ayushman cards created. More than 16.7 crore Ayushman cards have been created during the last two financial years.
“As on date, during 2023-24, more than 7.5 crore Ayushman cards have been created. This implies that approximately 181 Ayushman cards are created every minute,” the ministry stated.
Ayushman card creation is included in on-spot services being offered during the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra launched on November 15 last year with the intent to ensure coverage saturation of different schemes.
This campaign has significantly helped expedite card creation at the grassroots level.
More than 2.43 crore Ayushman cards have been created during the yatra.
The NHA has also launched ‘Ayushman App’ for generating beneficiary card.
The success of this application can be measured from the fact that the app has been downloaded for more than 52 lakh times since its launch on September 13 last year.
Further, as on date, approximately 14.6 crore Ayushman cards have been created for women.
“The scheme is striving to achieve gender parity along with regional parity and income parity in access to healthcare services with 49 per cent Ayushman cards issued to women beneficiaries. Also, 48 per cent of treatment provided under the scheme has been availed by women; thus, gender equity is part of core design of the scheme,” the ministry stated.
The scheme has reported 6.2 crore hospital admissions worth more than Rs 79,157 crore.
If the beneficiaries would have availed the same treatment on their own outside the ambit of the scheme, the total cost would have been nearly two times higher, thus, saving more than Rs 1.25 lakh crore out-of-pocket expenditure of poor and deprived families, the ministry stated. (PTI)
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