Now, Ayushman cards can be used for state schemes

At least 31 states and union territories have already agreed to the scheme, with final concurrence awaited from Tamil Nadu and Telangana. Delhi, West Bengal, and Odisha have stayed away from the scheme.

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The co-branded cards will allot space to both PM-JAY ad state specific logos. At the bottom of the card, the name of the scheme will be mentioned as “Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna-Mukyamantri Yojna (or the name of the state scheme).”

The beneficiary card for Ayushman Bharat-–Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) can now be used to avail benefits for any existing state health insurance schemes as well, with the National Health Authority (NHA) allowing co-branding with logos and names of both schemes on the new cards.

At least 31 states and union territories have already agreed to the scheme, with final concurrence awaited from Tamil Nadu and Telangana. Delhi, West Bengal, and Odisha have stayed away from the scheme.

“The same card can be used by beneficiaries under Ayushman Bharat and the state scheme. If a state wants to provide more than Rs 5 lakh benefit, partial funding for upto R 5 lakh will be provided by the Centre as per the existing scheme. If states have additional beneficiaries (other than those identified under the 2011 socio-economic and caste census), they will be also be able to use the same card,” said an official from the health ministry.

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The co-branding concept was introduced as the scheme is running in parallel with around 20 state schemes in India. NHA will provide full financial support for issuance of such co-branded cards to not just the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) beneficiaries identified under the scheme by the Centre but state-specific non-SECC beneficiaries as well.

The AB PM-JAY scheme provides R 5 lakh annual healthcare coverage to over 10 crore families across the country. So far, over 14 crore individuals have been issued Ayushman cards. And, 3.75 crore hospital admisions amounting to Rs 45,000 crores have been authoried under the scheme, according to data from the union health ministry.

The NHA aims to achieve a saturation of Ayushma cards, with the SECC database being enriched using the verified data from the government’s LPG connection Ujjwala scheme and National Food Security database.

Anonna Dutt

Anonna Dutt is a Principal Correspondent who writes primarily on health at the Indian Express. She reports on myriad topics ranging from the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension to the problems with pervasive infectious conditions. She reported on the government’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic and closely followed the vaccination programme. Her stories have resulted in the city government investing in high-end tests for the poor and acknowledging errors in their official reports. Dutt also takes a keen interest in the country’s space programme and has written on key missions like Chandrayaan 2 and 3, Aditya L1, and Gaganyaan. She was among the first batch of eleven media fellows with RBM Partnership to End Malaria. She was also selected to participate in the short-term programme on early childhood reporting at Columbia University’s Dart Centre. Dutt has a Bachelor’s Degree from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune and a PG Diploma from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. She started her reporting career with the Hindustan Times. When not at work, she tries to appease the Duolingo owl with her French skills and sometimes takes to the dance floor. ... Read More

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