Ayushman Bharat-PradhanMantri Jan ArogyaYojana (PMJAY) benefits about 1.5 lakh people within one month of its launch: J P Nadda

ShriJ P Nadda,Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare stated that Ayushman Bharat-PradhanMantri Jan ArogyaYojana (PMJAY), under the visionary leadership of the Hon. Prime Minister ShriNarendraModiji,has benefited about 1.5 lakh people and more than Rs 225crorehas been authorized for admissions within the first month of the launch of the programme since its launch on 23rd September.

Elaborating further, ShriNadda said that PMJAY is an entitlement-based scheme. This scheme will cover over 10 crorepoor and vulnerable families (approx. 50 crore beneficiaries) by providing coverage upto Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary hospitalization. There is no limit on the family size to ensure that all members of designated families specifically girl child & senior citizens, get coverage. Services are cashless & paperless, at the point of service, in both the public and empanelled private facilities. These will also be portable anywhere in the country, he said.

ShriNadda further said that PM-JAY will help reduce catastrophic expenditure for hospitalizations, which impoverishes people and will help mitigate the financial risk arising out of catastrophic health episodes. “Entitled families will be able to use the quality health services they need without facing financial hardships,” he added. The Union Health Minister said that the scheme is being implemented in 33 States/UTs that have signed MoUs or agreed to sign MoU with the Centre. He said that about 1350 packages have been included in the PMJAY and 14,778 hospitals have ben empanelled so far.

Ayushman Bharat comprises two pillars – the first is provision of universal and Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC) delivered in formulation of Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs); which are the transformed first two tiers of the public health system i.e. the Sub Health Centres (SHC) and the Primary Health Centres (PHC) and the second component is the PradhanMantri Jan ArogyaAbhiyaan (PMJAY).

ShriNaddaalso said that the other component of Ayushman Bharat comprisingHealth and Wellness Centres (HWCs) is aimed at a paradigm shift in provisioning Comprehensive Primary Healthcare (CPHC) to the people close to their communities and homes. To deliver these healthcare services, 1,50,000 Sub-Centres and PHCs would be transformed as Health and Wellness Centres by 2022 in a phased manner. The expanded range of services at HWCs would include services for Non-Communicable diseases, Mental health, ENT, Opthalmology, Oral health, Geriatric and palliative health care and Trauma care, in addition to the existing services of Reproductive and Child Health and communicable diseases. This will reduce Out of Pocket Expenditure and patient hardships for the community. So far about 2913 HWCs have ben operationalized across the States, he said.