New Delhi: The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the multiple proposals including Senior Citizens aged 70 years and above irrespective of income under the flagship scheme Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).
Briefing the reporters here, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “The aim of this scheme is to benefit approximately 4.5 crore families with six crore senior citizens with 5 Lakh rupees free health insurance cover on a family basis.”
With this approval, all senior citizens of the age 70 years and above irrespective of their socio- economic status would be eligible to avail the benefits of AB PM-JAY. The eligible senior citizens would be issued a new distinct card under AB PM-JAY. The senior citizens of the age 70 years and above belonging to families already covered under AB PM-JAY will get an additional top-up cover up to Rs 5 lakh per year for themselves (which they do not have to share with the other members of the family who are below the age of 70 years). All other senior citizens of the age 70 years and above will get a cover up to Rs 5 lakh per year on a family basis, Vaishnaw informed.
The Union Minister said senior citizens of the age 70 years and above who are already availing benefits of other public health insurance schemes such as Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS), Ayushman Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) may either choose their existing scheme or opt for AB PMJAY. It has been clarified that senior citizens of 70 years and above who are under private health insurance policies or Employees’ State Insurance scheme will be eligible to avail benefits under AB PM-JAY.
AB PM-JAY is the world’s largest publicly funded health assurance scheme which provides health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to 55 crore individuals corresponding to 12.34 crore families. All members of the eligible families irrespective of age are covered under the scheme. The scheme has covered 7.37 Crore hospital admissions including 49 percent women beneficiaries. The public has benefited to the extent of over Rs. 1 Lakh crore under the scheme, he added.
The cabinet also approved ‘Mission Mausam' with an outlay of Rs 2,000 crore over two years. Mission Mausam, to be chiefly implemented by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, is envisaged to be a multi-faceted and transformative initiative to tremendously boost India's weather and climate-related science, research, and services. It will help to better equip stakeholders, including citizens and last-mile users, in tackling extreme weather events and the impacts of climate change. The ambitious program will help broaden capacity and resilience across communities, sectors, and ecosystems in the long run.
Vaishnaw further informed as part of the Mission Mausam, India will exponentially expound research and development, and capacity in atmospheric sciences, especially weather surveillance, modeling, forecasting, and management. By integrating advanced observation systems, high-performance computing, and cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, Mission Mausam will set a new benchmark for predicting weather with high precision.
The mission's focus will include improving observations and understanding for providing highly accurate and timely weather and climate information across temporal and spatial scales, including monsoon forecasts, alerts for air quality, extreme weather events and cyclones, weather interventions for managing fog, hail, and rain, etc., capacity building and generating awareness. Critical elements of Mission Mausam will include the deployment of next-generation radars and satellite systems with advanced sensors and high-performance supercomputers, the development of improved Earth system models and a GIS-based automated Decision Support System for real-time data dissemination, he stated.
