Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY)

About PM-JAY :

          Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) was launched on 23rd September 2018. It’s  the world’s largest Government funded health assurance scheme.
         The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) contributed to improvement in many health outcomes in States that implemented the programme.

         States that joined the PM-JAY, compared to those that did not, experienced greater penetration of health insurance, reduction in infant and child mortality rates, realised improved access and utilisation of family planning services and greater awareness of HIV/AIDS.

        Across all the States, the proportion of households with health insurance increased by 54% for States that implemented PM-JAY while falling by 10% in States that did not.

Key Features of PM-JAY:

         1. The world’s largest health insurance/ assurance scheme fully financed by the government.
         2. It provides cover of 5 lakhs per family per year, for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization across public and private empaneled hospitals in India.
         3. Coverage: Over 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable entitled families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) are eligible for these benefits.
         4. Provides cashless access to health care services for the beneficiary at the point of service.

Eligibility:
          No restrictions on family size, age or gender.
          All pre–existing conditions are covered from day one.
          It covers medical procedures such as oncology, cardiology, nephrology etc and up to three days of pre-hospitalisation and 15 days post-hospitalisation expenses such as diagnostics and medicines are also included in the scheme.
           Benefits of the scheme are portable across the country.
           Services include approximately 1,393 procedures covering all the costs related to treatment, including but not limited to drugs, supplies, diagnostic services, physician’s fees, room charges, surgeon charges, OT and ICU charges etc.
            Public hospitals are reimbursed for the healthcare services at par with the private hospitals.

Achievements:

  Beneficial for Poor:

            In around the first 200 days of implementation, PM-JAY has benefitted more than 20.8 lakh poor and deprived people who received free treatment worth more than Rs. 5,000 crores.

  During Covid-19:

            A key design feature of PM-JAY from the beginning of the scheme is portability, which helps to ensure that a PM-JAY-eligible migrant worker can access the scheme’s services in any empanelled hospital across the country, irrespective of their state of residence.

Source: PIB & Others