New Delhi, Jan 15: Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri - Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) has crossed the milestone of 30 crore Ayushman cards on January 12,2024.
The flagship scheme being implemented by the National Health Authority (NHA) aims to provide a health cover of Rs. 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to 12 crore beneficiary families.
Ayushman card creation is the most fundamental activity under the Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY and concerted efforts are being made continuously to ensure that every beneficiary under the scheme has Ayushman card. 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 cardshave been created only 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.
Ayushman card creation is included on-spot services being offered during Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra launched on November 15, 2023 with the intent to ensure saturation of different schemes of Government of India. This campaign has significantly helped expedite card creation at the grassroot level. More than 2.43 crore Ayushman cards have been created during the Yatra. Further, more than 5.6 crore Ayushman cards (launched on September 13, 2023) have been created during Ayushman Bhava campaign launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to achieve saturation of different health schemes.
In order to reach out to the last mile, NHA has launched ‘Ayushman App’ for Ayushman Card creation. The app has a unique feature of self-verification. In simple 4 steps, this feature enables users to create Ayushman Card using an android mobile phone. Further, any person can help beneficiaries to create Ayushman card. Thus, the Ayushman App enables Jan Bhagidari (community participation) in its spirit. 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 13,2023.
With 4.83 crore Ayushman Cards, Uttar Pradesh tops the list of states with the highest number of Ayushman Cards created. Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra stand at number two and three positions with 3.78 crore and 2.39 crore Ayushman cards respectively. Eleven states have more than 1 crore Ayushman card holders.Top ten states with highest number of Ayushman cards are Uttar Pradesh- 4.8 crore, Madhya Pradesh- 3.8 cr, Maharashtra -2.4 cr, Gujarat- 2.3 cr, Chhattisgarh 2.1 cr, Assam -1.6 cr, Rajasthan- 1.6 cr, Karnataka-1.5 cr, Andhra Pradesh- 1.5 cr and Jharkhand 1.2 crore
Further, as on date, approximately 14.6 crore Ayushman cards have been created for females. The scheme is striving to achieve gender parity along with regional parity and income parity in access to healthcare services with 49 percent Ayushman Cards issued to female beneficiaries. Also, 48 percent of treatment provided under the scheme has been availed by the female. Thus, gender equity is part of core design of the scheme.
Today, Ayushman Card has become a symbol of equity, entitlement and empowerment. It gives an assurance to the poor and deprived family that they will be protected against the double-burden of disease and the debilitating impact of catastrophic expenditure incurred during treatment. Underscoring this fact, the Government of India is making efforts to ensure that all eligible beneficiaries possess Ayushman Card.
Further, Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY has successfully catered to 6.2 crore hospital admissions worth more than Rs. 79,157 crore. If the beneficiary would have availed the same treatment on their own outside the ambit of AB PM-JAY, the total cost of the treatment would have gone nearly 2 times higher,thus, saving more than 1.25 lakh crore out of pocket expenditure of poor and deprived families.
