"Three Years Of Service, Prosperity": Health Minister On Ayushman Bharat Scheme

Rejoicing over the third anniversary of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya today said that it has been three years of service and prosperity.

"Three years of service and prosperity! Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji's thinking has been to raise the living standard of the marginalised people. Ayushman Bharat scheme has provided free treatment facilities to crores of people and this scheme is proving to be a boon for the poor," read Mr Mandaviya's tweet, roughly translated from Hindi.

प्रधानमंत्री @NarendraModi जी की आयुष्मान भारत योजना पिछले 3 वर्षों से गरीबों के ईलाज में अहम भूमिका निभा रही है।

दवाओं की लागत, उपचार सहित विभिन्न प्रकार के खर्च की चिंता से यह योजना मुक्त करते हुए गरीब को बेहतर ईलाज मिलना सुनिश्चित कर रही है। #SevaSamarpan #3YearsofPMJAY pic.twitter.com/maMtrFrf15

— Mansukh Mandaviya (@mansukhmandviya) September 23, 2021

The health minister said that this scheme is ensuring better treatment to the poor who could not access expensive treatment and medicines. He added that AB PM-JAY is the largest health insurance scheme in the world enabling 50 crore beneficiaries to get free healthcare.

Mr Mandaviya will chair the virtual inaugural session of the third anniversary of AB PM-JAY today which will be celebrated as 'Arogya Manthan 3.0'.

The AB PM-JAY, a flagship scheme of the Central government that seeks to achieve the vision of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), was launched on September 23, 2018, from Ranchi by Prime Minister Modi.

The scheme aims to provide free and cashless healthcare services up to Rs 5 lacs per family per year, for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisations to over 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families (over 54 crore beneficiaries) as per Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC)-2011 database. At present, PM-JAY is functional in 33 states and union territories of the country.

Since the inception of the scheme, more than two crore treatments worth Rs 26,400 crores have been authorised through a network of over 24,000 empanelled hospitals, both government and private across the country.

Moreover, there are 918 Health Benefits Packages (HBP) covering 1,669 procedures along with COVID-19 treatment and diagnostic tests under the scheme. The top tertiary care includes orthopaedics, cardiology, cardiothoracic and vascular surgery, radiation oncology and urology.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)