New Delhi: A day after the Union Cabinet approved the health coverage for all senior citizens aged 70 years and above irrespective of income under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB PMJAY) flagship scheme, a top official of the Health Ministry on Thursday said that the government is working towards adding more packages that exclusively tend to geriatric care.
"Centre will work towards adding more packages that exclusively tend to geriatric care (old age-related ailments). This scheme is also expected to help women as 58 per cent of 70+ age people are women and 54 of them are widows," the official told ETV Bharat.
Describing in detail about the extension of new coverage under AB PMJAY, the official said that anyone aged 70 or above, will be eligible for applying for the scheme.
Stating that the scheme will be operational within a week, the official said, "Initially there will be a pilot launch to sort out any issues that may arise."
According to the official, it's an application-based scheme and people will need to register only through the portal.
"Facility of face authentication available on the portal will have a designated link for senior citizens 70+," the official said adding, "There will be an awareness campaign on all media platforms not only through IEC but also through field level workers and other community level participation."
Once KYC is completed, the card will be operational for use immediately, the official said. It is understood that the Centre will fund a 60 per cent share of the scheme.
According to the official, those having Ayushman cards will need to apply for a new card and complete their eKYC again.
"Those having private insurance and ESIC beneficiaries can also apply for the AB PMJAY scheme. About two crore families and three crore new individuals will be added to the scheme because of this announcement" said the official.
More than six crore people have already availed of the benefits of this scheme.
"As private insurance is difficult to obtain for such old-age people, the scheme will definitely give them a major relief," the official stated.
Initially, 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families comprising the bottom 40 per cent of India’s population were covered under the scheme. Later, the Centre, in January 2022 revised the beneficiary base under AB PM-JAY from 10.74 crore to 12 crore families considering India's decadal population growth of 11.7 per cent over the 2011 population.
The scheme was further expanded to cover 37 lakh ASHAs/AWWs/AWHs working across the country and their families for free healthcare benefits. The scheme has covered 7.37 crore hospital admissions including 49 per cent women beneficiaries.
AB PM-JAY is tagged as the world’s largest publicly funded health assurance scheme which provides health cover of Rs lakh lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to 55 crore individuals corresponding to 12.34 crore families.
Senior citizens of 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 PM-JAY.
