Around 85 Percent Rural and 60 Percent Urban Households to Profit from Ayushman Bharat Scheme

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, J.P. Nadda said that Around 85 percent rural households and 60 percent urban households have been identified by the government that will profit from the Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Scheme. The minister said the project had already been started on pilot basis in 16 states and Union Territories to test and help the programme evolve into a reliable, transparent and user-friendly IT system.

"The government has given total flexibility to the states to choose their modes of implementation among insurance, trust or mixed mode and the Centre is ready to provide the required support. No enrolment is required for beneficiaries, and there is no payment for obtaining services at empanelled hospitals," he said.

According to the health ministry, 29 states and UTs have signed the MoU and have started working on the implementation of the PMJAY. Punjab, Puduchery, Karnataka, Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu are likely to sign for the scheme, whereas Telangana and Odisha have not confirmed it yet.

As per the ministry, the funding for the scheme will be shared - 60:40 for all states and UTs with their legislature, 90:10 in northeastern states, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal and Uttarakhand and 100 percent Central funding for UTs without a legislature.

Under the scheme, Rs 5 lakh per family every year will be borne by the center which approximately covers 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families entitled under Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data with no cap on family size or age.

Source-IANS