36 crore beneficiaries verified, 8.39 cr hospital admissions authorised under AB PM-JAY: Prataprao Jadhav

New Delhi, Dec 20 (IANS) About 36 crore beneficiaries have been verified under the flagship scheme Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri-Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Prataprao Jadhav told the Parliament on Friday.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minister Jadhav said that under the AB PM-JAY scheme "8.39 crore hospital admissions worth over Rs 1.16 lakh crore have been authorised".

The AB PM-JAY provides health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to approximately 55 crore beneficiaries. This corresponds to 12.37 crore families constituting economically vulnerable bottom 40 per cent of India's population.

The scheme has also led to "significant saving towards Out-of-Pocket-Expenditure (OOPE) for beneficiaries related to hospitalisation costs", Minister Jadhav said.

The MoS saiid that many states/UTs have implemented the scheme by converging their respective State Health Insurance Schemes with AB PM-JAY.

"This has led to the inclusion of more than 18 crore families,” he said.

Further, in March 2024, 37 lakh families of ASHA, Anganwadi Workers, and Anganwadi Helpers were also included in the scheme.

In October, the scheme was expanded to provide free treatment benefits of up to an additional Rs 5 lakh per year to all senior citizens aged 70 years and above, irrespective of their socio-economic status.

The estimated number of beneficiary families aged 70 years and above across the country is 4.5 crore corresponding to the 6 crore individuals under the scheme.

Meanwhile, Minister Jadhav also listed out initiatives undertaken by the government to tackle the rising cases of diabetes, hypertension, oral cancer, breast cancer and cervical cancer.

He stated that under the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD) part of the National Health Mission (NHM), “770 district NCD clinics, 372 district day care centres, 233 cardiac care units and 6,410 community health centre NCD clinics have been set up”.

The Centre has also rolled out a population-based initiative for screening, management and prevention of common NCDs including diabetes, hypertension, oral cancer, breast cancer and cervical cancer, as part of comprehensive Primary Health Care under NHM.

“Screening of these common NCDs is an integral part of service delivery,” the MoS said, adding the government also promotes a healthy lifestyle by observing health days related to NCDs and use of social media for continued community awareness.

Jadhav also lauded the role of the community, ASHAs in spreading awareness about NCDs.

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