Govt to accelerate beneficiary schemes in pre-election blitz
NHA has streamlined the process of card creation by conducting e-KYC, card printing and dispatch up to block/district level and quick card delivery to beneficiaries.
PremiumNew Delhi: With the general election less than a year away, the Union government is determined to achieve the target of ensuring 100% saturation of all its flagship beneficiary schemes.
The top leadership in the Union government called for a meeting with all the concerned officials responsible for running flagship schemes such as Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. The objective is to work towards achieving 100% saturation of all schemes by 31 July, and the state/UT governments have been instructed to actively contribute to this endeavour. In this regard, the National Health Authority which is the implementing agency of AB PM-JAY has written to all the state authorities to accelerate the pace of Ayushman Bharat card creation drive by keeping a stronger focus on bigger states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and UTs.
“At PM-JAY, we are taking multiple decisions for beneficiary outreach. We have replaced paper based Ayushman cards with PVC cards (co-branded with state) free of cost to all the eligible beneficiaries. Earlier, for the paper-based cards, beneficiaries used to pay ₹30, but now it is free of cost. Those of have received paper cards earlier will now get the cards free of cost," said an official.
NHA has streamlined the process of card creation by conducting e-KYC, card printing and dispatch up to block/district level and quick card delivery to beneficiaries.
“We have engaged field level workers including ASHAs to perform e-KYC of the beneficiary with the use of face-authentication technology. We have also introduced self-registration process through PM-JAY mobile application wherein a beneficiary can register and verify himself and his family members," the official said.
Queries sent to the health ministry spokesperson remained unanswered till press time.
Notably, NHA has increased the beneficiary base of AB PM-JAY from the current 107.4 million poor and vulnerable families to 120 million in an effort to provide affordable quality healthcare to more citizens. This expansion will benefit an additional 12.6 million families comprising 60 million individuals.
“Besides this, NHA has given flexibility to the states to tag non-SECC beneficiaries identified on similar parameters as of AB PM-JAY," said the official.
As on 28 May, around 23,38,07,969 Ayushman cards have been created and 5,10,95,328 authorized hospital admissions have been done since the inception of the scheme.
AB PM-JAY is the world’s largest health assurance scheme. It was launched in September 2018 with an aim of providing free health cover of up to ₹5 lakh per eligible beneficiary for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization.
Recently, before elections in Karnataka, the government announced the distribution of 13.8 million cards, while in Assam PM Narendra Modi announced for the distribution of 14 million cards while in Gujarat-50 lakhs cards have already been distributed.
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