Two-day long Arogya Manthan being held

Why is in news? Two-day long Arogya Manthan being held to mark 5 years of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) and two years of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM)

Ayushman Bharat is the most important Government welfare scheme underway in India today, as it helps the poor access the best treatment, same as the rich, which was not possible earlier.

This was stated by Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, at the inaugural session of Arogya Manthan, being held to celebrate five years of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) and two years of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM).

Achievements:

Under PM-JAY around 5.59 crore hospitals admission have been undertaken. “Today, around 27,343 hospitals have been empanelled under Ayushman Bharat, providing both cashless, and portable treatment facilities.”

“ABDM has been functioning on a mission mode, to help build a digital health ecosystem that supports universal health coverage, with all stakeholders together on a digital platform.

Today more than 45 crore ABHA IDs have been created, 2,19,546 Health Facilities have been registered, and around 2,28,794 Healthcare Professionals have been on boarded under ABDM, which shows that health services are being saturated, including by use of digital tools.

Union Health Secretary said, “Around 60% of the amount has been used for tertiary care hospitalization, which had been one of the aims of PM-JAY when it was launched.” He added that 177 Ayushman PMJAY cards are being made per minute, with 30 hospital admissions per minute. He stated that 48% of hospitalisations are women beneficiaries, whereas 8 hospitals are being empanelled per day, on an average.

About AB-PMJAY:

Launched in September 2018, the scheme aimed to offer secondary and tertiary care services to the vulnerable population in the society.

It was launched as a second component of the ‘Ayushman Bharat’ scheme.

This scheme aimed to offer medical coverage of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to poor and vulnerable families.

The scheme covers over nearly 40% of the population targeted towards poorest and the vulnerable.

Eligibility criteria:

The scheme is targeted to cover 10.74 crore poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational category of urban worker’s families.

The beneficiaries as identified by latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data.

Benefits:

It provides cashless access to health care services for the beneficiary at the point of service, i.e., the hospital.

Under the scheme every eligible family will be given Rs 5 lakh Insurance coverage benefit per year.

It offers Health Benefit Packages which covers surgery, medical and day care treatments, cost of medicines and diagnostics.