Under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, the central government is expected to hike the insurance coverage amount to Rs 10 lakh from Rs 5 lakh in the Budget 2024.
The Centre is likely to hike the insurance coverage amount under the Ayushman Bharat health scheme to Rs 10 lakh from the existing Rs 5 lakh, according to a report.
It is expected that the Centre in this month’s union budget may make this mega announcement about the doubling of insurance coverage, PTI reported quoting sources. The report also said that the government may double the beneficiary base under the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme. Now, the scheme will cover all those aged above 70 years of age, as per the report.
Once the proposal is implemented, the scheme is expected to cost the exchequer additional Rs 12,076 crore annually as per estimates prepared by the National Health Authority, the report said.
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What is Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY)?
Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY is the largest health assurance scheme in the world which aims at providing a health cover of Rs 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to over 12 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 55 crore beneficiaries) that form the bottom 40% of the Indian population.
PM-JAY was earlier known as the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) before being rechristened. It subsumed the then existing Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) which had been launched in 2008. The coverage mentioned under PM-JAY, therefore, also includes families that were covered in RSBY but are not present in the SECC 2011 database. PM-JAY is fully funded by the government and cost of implementation is shared between the central and state governments.
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Ayushman Bharat health cover allocation hiked in interim budget
In the interim Budget 2024, the Modi government raised the allocation for the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana to Rs 7,200 crore. The Centre also allocated Rs 646 crore for the Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM).
On June 27, President Droupadi Murmu in her address to the joint sitting of Parliament said those above 70 years of age will now be covered under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana now.
If those above 70 years of age are also covered under the Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY, there will be around 4-5 crore more beneficiaries coming under the scheme, the report said. The limit of Rs 5 lakh for AB-PMJAY was fixed in 2018.
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Ayushman Bharat scheme’s five key features:
- Ayushman Bharat health scheme is the world’s largest health insurance scheme fully financed by the government.
- The scheme currently gives a cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization across public and private empanelled hospitals in India.
- Over 12 crore poor and vulnerable entitled families (approximately 55 crore beneficiaries) are eligible for these benefits.
- PM-JAY provides cashless access to health care services for the beneficiary at the point of service, that is, the hospital.
- PM-JAY envisions to help mitigate catastrophic expenditure on medical treatment which pushes nearly 6 crore Indians into poverty each year. It covers up to 3 days of pre-hospitalization and 15 days post-hospitalization expenses such as diagnostics and medicines.
