PM to launch health scheme today

With just a few months to go for the Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will roll out the Centre’s flagship Ayushman BharatNational Health Protection Mission ( ABNHPM) from Jharkhand on Sunday. The ambitious scheme, which was renamed the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyan ( PMJAY), aims to provide a coverage of ` 5 lakh per family annually, benefiting more than 10 crore poor families.

Eligible people can avail the benefits in the government and listed private hospitals.

The scheme will target poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational category of urban workers’ families, 8.03 crore in rural and 2.33 crore in urban areas, as per the latest SocioEconomic Caste Census ( SECC) data. It will cover around 50 crore people.

The entitlement is being decided on the basis of deprivation criteria in the SECC database.

The beneficiaries are identified based on the deprivation categories, identified under the SECC database for rural areas. For the urban areas, the 11 occupational criteria will determine entitlement.

In addition, the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna ( RSBY) beneficiaries in states where it is active are also included. There is no cap on family size and age in the scheme, ensuring that nobody is left out.

One would only need to establish one’s identity to avail benefits under the scheme and it could be through Aadhaar card or election ID card or ration card.

Having an Aadhaar card is not mandatory to avail the scheme’s benefit.

In case of hospitalisation, members of the beneficiary families do not need to pay anything under the scheme, provided one goes to a government or an empanelled private hospital.