The Delhi government has officially launched the implementation of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) today and has also started the distribution of Ayushman cards to the eligible beneficiaries.
Delhi is the 35th State/Union Territory to join the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana that covers over 50 crore people across the country on the basis of socio-economic caste census.
Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) is the Indian government’s flagship health insurance scheme launched in 2018 with an objective to offer financial assistance for hospitalization expenses to the economically weaker families on the basis of socio-economic caste census 2011 (SECC 2011). The scheme provides an annual health coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family.
A MoU has been signed between the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and the NCT of Delhi in the presence of Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda and Delhi’s Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.
“Under the PM-JAY Scheme, more than 8.19 crore underprivileged patients have received treatment since 2018, with the government spending approximately Rs 1.26 lakh crore on their healthcare,” Union Health Minister JP Nadda stated during the MoU signing ceremony.
Speaking on the occasion, Delhi Chief Minister Smt. Rekha Gupta stated that an amount of Rs 1,749 crore has been allocated for the NCT of Delhi for the establishment of 1,139 urban Ayushman Arogya Mandirs and for the strengthening of 11 integrated public health laboratories and 9 critical care blocks under Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM).
Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY is second scheme on this scale that Delhi government has launched since the formation of new state government. The state government also announced ‘Mahila Samriddhi Yojana‘ last month to provide financial assistance to the women in the National Capital Territory.
Key highlights as Delhi Implements Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY scheme
- The implementation of AB PM-JAY scheme will benefit around 36 lakh people in Delhi including around 30 lakh people from 6.54 lakh families and nearly 6 lakh senior citizens. The scheme also covers both health and life insurance for frontline workers including ASHAs and Anganwadi workers.
- Under the scheme, eligible families in Delhi will receive health coverage of up to Rs 10 lakh annually as Delhi government will provide an additional top-up of Rs 5 lakh per year on top of the Rs 5 lakh cover provided by the Central government.
- Delhi government has enlisted 34 government and 46 private hospitals under the scheme where the beneficiaries can get cashless treatment for 1,961 medical procedures across 27 specialties covered under the scheme. However, the AB PM-JAY beneficiaries can go to any of the hospitals across the country enlisted under the scheme to get the treatment. The Ayushman Bharat scheme currently has a total of 30,957 hospitals under its ambit.
- The scheme now covers all senior citizens aged over 70 years.
Eligibility Criteria:
The PM-JAY scheme covers beneficiaries under two categories – rural and urban beneficiaries – with different eligibility criteria for each.
- Eligibility criteria for Rural Beneficiaries: Beneficiaries in rural areas are determined using deprivation criteria drawn from socioeconomic census. The families must meet at least one indicator of hardship out of seven such as living in a single room with kucha walls and roof, lacking an adult or an adult male aged 16-59, having a disabled family member with no able-bodied adult, belonging to SC/ST groups, or being landless and having major part of their income from manual casual labour. Destitute, living on alms, manual scavenger households, primitive tribal groups and legally released bonded labour households are automatically included.
- Eligibility criteria for Urban Beneficiaries: Urban beneficiaries are included based on the occupation. The eligible occupational categories mostly include people/families from low income work-groups such as ragpickers, beggars, domestic worker, street vendors or hawkers, construction workers, sanitation workers, home based workers, shop workers, repair workers, transport workers and chowkidar etc.
Who is not eligible?
Families owning motorized vehicles, mechanized farming equipment, refrigerators, landlines are excluded from the scheme along with families who have kisan cards with a credit limit of Rs 50,000, monthly income above Rs 10,000, solid houses, own 5 acres or more agricultural land, or work in government or government-managed non-agricultural enterprises.
How to apply?
The eligible beneficiaries can apply either online or by visiting an empanelled hospital or Common Service Centre.
How to apply online:
- Visit the official PM-JAY website (pmjay.gov.in) and click on the ‘Am I Eligible’ link given in the top menu
- Fill-in the mobile number and OTP to login
- Next, choose your State, sub-scheme PM-JAY, district, and then search by Aadhaar
- Then complete the e-KYC using Aadhaar OTP authentication
- Your Ayushman card will be available to download after some time.
You can follow the same process to register other members of your family for Ayushman card. The application process can also be completed through the official Ayushman mobile app available on the Google Play Store for Android phones.
How to apply offline:
The eligible beneficiaries can visit a hospital enlisted under PMJAY scheme or a nearby CSC with the necessary documents such as Aadhaar, PAN card, Voter ID etc. and apply for the Ayushman card.
You can search for a nearby hospital to apply from the list of empanelled hospitals through the PMJAY website here.