After three years Nitish restarts Ayushman Bharat in Bihar, renames it
After lying dormant in Bihar for the past three years, the central government’s flagship health scheme Ayushman Bharat has been restarted in Bihar, according to two officials aware of the matter.
With one difference: it will be called the Bihar Mukhyamantri Jan Arogya Yojana, rather than Pradhan Mantri Jan Aroygya Yojana (AB-PMJAY). This follows chief minister Nitish Kumar leading his Janata Dal (United) party back as an ally of the BJP ahead of the general election.
Till last year, Rajasthan too had not implemented the Ayushman Bharat as it had its own similar scheme named Chiranjeevi Yojna. With the BJP ousting the Congress in Rajasthan, the Ayushman Bharat has now started in the state.
Three states have not implemented the scheme—Delhi, Odisha and West Bengal.
Bihar too had issued only three million AB-PMJAY cards until February. But by 11 March, that number had leapt fourfold to 12 million, as per data shared by the Union health and family welfare ministry. As many as 1.67 million beneficiaries were enrolled on a single day—5 March.
Ayushman Bharat cards were not being made in Bihar and the health ministry was not able to cater to the public. Also, the utilization of the allotted funds was poor. The scheme gives a flexibility to states whether to opt for it or not.
Under the Bihar scheme, the state government will provide health insurance benefits of up to ₹5 lakh to the families. Special campaigns and enrolment drives are being conducted in the state.
As per the Union health ministry, the government had released ₹2415.34 crore for FY21, ₹1905.35 for FY22 and ₹3,717.81 crore for FY23 to Bihar.
However, as per officials, the funds mostly remained unutilized because new beneficiaries were not being enrolled.
“For the PMJAY cards, the government is banking on the ration card data-base. The families are being identified and the district officials are reaching out to them. To ensure that more people are able to avail the AB-PMJAY we are involving Asha and Anganwadi workers too. They will be paid ₹5 per enrolment in the scheme,” said a senior official from the health ministry.
In terms of the number of card-holders, the top three states are Uttar Pradesh (more than 50 million), Madhya Pradesh (40 million) and Maharashtra.
"Bihar had been lagging behind many states in terms of enrolment of beneficiaries under the scheme. But in just a few days in the month of March, the state has jumped up to the fifth rank.
The AB-PMJAY was announced in 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The scheme aims at providing free healthcare of up to ₹ 5 lakh at private and government hospitals.
The government plans to revise the existing packages and treatments and is likely to announce new ones after the Lok Sabha election is over.