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Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY)




Overview of Ayushman Bharat : India’s commitment to Universal Health Coverage

Ayushman Bharat is National Health Protection Scheme, which will cover over 10 crore poor & vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) providing coverage up to 5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization

Rationale behind Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY)

·     National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) has found 85.9% of rural households and 82% of urban households have no access to healthcare insurance/assurance.
·       More than 17% of Indian population spends at least 10% of household budgets for health services. Catastrophic healthcare related expenditure pushes families into debt, with more than 24% households in rural India and 18% population in urban area have met their healthcare expenses through some sort of borrowings.

Targeted beneficiaries and benefits

·      PMJAY will target poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational category of urban workers’ families identified as per 2011 census. Additionally, all such enrolled families under Rashtriya Swasthaya Bima Yojana (RSBY) that do not feature above will be included as well.
·      Approximately 10.74 crore identified families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) will be entitled to get the benefits.
·      The scheme is entitlement based. No formal enrolment process is required.
·      There is no cap on family size and age as well as restriction on preexisting conditions.
·    PMJAY will help reduce out of pocket hospitalisation expenses, fulfill unmet needs and improve access of identified families to quality inpatient care and day care surgeries
·     PMJAY will provide a coverage up to Rs. 5,00,000 per family per year, for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization through a network of Empanelled Health Care Providers (EHCP).
·         The EHCP network will provide completely cashless and paperless access to services for the beneficiaries at the both public and private hospitals. The services will include 1350   procedures covering pre and post hospitalization, diagnostics, medicines etc.
·     PMJAY beneficiaries will be able to move across borders and access services across the  country through the provider network seamlessly.
·        The categories in rural and urban that will be covered under PMJAY are given as                 follows:


For Rural:
o   Total deprived Households who belong to one of the six categories. deprivation criteria amongst D1, D2, D3, D4, D5 and D7:
o   Only one room with kucha walls and kucha roof (D1)
o   No adult member between age 16 to 59 (D2)
o   Female headed households with no adult male member between age 16 to 59 (D3)
o   Disabled member and no able-bodied adult member (D4)
o   SC/ST households (D5)
o   Landless households deriving major part of their income from manual casual labour (D7)
o   Automatically included:
Ø  Households without shelter / Destitute/ living on alms / Manual scavenger families / Primitive tribal groups / Legally released bonded labour

For Rural:
Total deprived Households who belong to one of the six categories. deprivation criteria amongst D1, D2, D3, D4, D5 and D7:
Only one room with kucha walls and kucha roof (D1)
No adult member between age 16 to 59 (D2)
Female headed households with no adult male member between age 16 to 59 (D3)
Disabled member and no able-bodied adult member (D4)
SC/ST households (D5)
Landless households deriving major part of their income from manual casual labour (D7)
Automatically included:
Households without shelter / Destitute/ living on alms / Manual scavenger families / Primitive tribal groups / Legally released bonded labour

For Urban:
Occupational Categories of Workers
Rag picker / Beggar / Domestic worker / Street vendor / Cobbler/hawker / Other service provider working on streets / Construction worker/ Plumber/ Mason / Labour/ Painter/ Welder / Security guard / Coolie and another head-load worker / Sweeper / Sanitation worker / Mali / Home-based worker/ Artisan/ Handicrafts worker / Tailor / Transport worker / Driver / Conductor/ Helper to drivers and conductors/ Cart /puller / Rickshaw puller / Shop worker/ Assistant / Peon in small establishment/ Helper / Delivery assistant / Attendant/ Waiter / Electrician/ Mechanic/ Assembler / Repair worker / Washer-man / Chowkidar

The following beneficiaries are automatically excluded:

Households having motorized 2/3/4 wheeler/fishing boat
Households having mechanized 3/4 wheeler agricultural equipment
Households having Kisan Credit Card with credit limit above Rs. 50,000/-
Household member is a government employee
Households with non-agricultural enterprises registered with government
Any member of household earning more than Rs. 10,000/- per month
Households paying income tax
Households paying professional tax
House with three or more rooms with pucca walls and roof
Owns a refrigerator
Owns a landline phone
Owns more than 2.5 acres of irrigated land with 1 irrigation equipment
Owns 5 acres or more of irrigated land for two or more crop season
Owning at least 7.5 acres of land or more with at least one irrigation equipment

The official website of Ayushman Bharat yojana is www.abnhpm.gov.in  one may visit the site to view and download the beneficiary eligibility and empanelled hospitals list as and when it gets updated. 

To check whether you are eligible, please visit link:   
             https://mera.pmjay.gov.in/search/login  


In nutshell, Ayushman Bharat can prove to be a magic wand if implemented properly and will save lakhs of Indian from clutches of poverty as they get free Medical Treatments.   

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