The Center made the announcement today (Representative)
New Delhi:
The Union government has approved health coverage for all those aged 70 years and above under the Ayushman Bharat National Insurance Scheme.
The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a statement said that the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) will benefit 4.5 million families with six million elderly people. The free coverage is worth Rs 5 lakh and will be on a family basis.
“With this approval, all senior citizens aged 70 years and above, irrespective of their socioeconomic status, would be eligible to avail the benefits of AB PM-JAY. Eligible senior citizens will be issued a new separate card under AB PM-JAY,” the government said in the statement.
Senior citizens aged 70 years and above belonging to families already covered under AB PM-JAY will get additional coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per annum for themselves (which they will not have to share with other family members who are below 70 years of age), the government said.
Senior citizens above 70 years of age who are already availing other government health insurance schemes like Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) and Ayushman Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) can opt for their existing scheme or opt for AB PMJAY.
It has been clarified that senior citizens aged 70 years and above who are covered under private health insurance policies or the Employees’ State Insurance Scheme will be eligible to avail the benefits under AB PM-JAY.
AB PM-JAY is the world’s largest publicly funded health insurance scheme providing health coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family per annum for secondary and tertiary care hospital admission to 55 crore people, corresponding to 12.34 crore families.
All members of eligible families, irrespective of age, are covered under the scheme. The scheme has covered 7.37 million hospital admissions, of which 49 per cent are women beneficiaries. The public has benefited over Rs 1 lakh crore under the scheme, the government said.
The expansion of coverage to senior citizens aged 70 years and above was announced by Prime Minister Modi in April.
The government said that the AB PM-JAY scheme has seen a continuous expansion of the beneficiary base. Initially, the scheme covered 10.74 million poor and vulnerable families, which constituted the bottom 40% of India’s population.
Subsequently, in January 2022, the government revised the beneficiary base under AB PM-JAY from 10.74 crore to 12 crore families considering the decadal growth of India’s population of 11.7% over the 2011 population.
The scheme has been further expanded to cover 37 lakh working ASHA/AWW/AWH across the country and their families for free healthcare provision. Taking forward the mission, AB PM-JAY would now provide free healthcare coverage of Rs 5 lakh to all citizens in the age group of 70 years and above across the country.