PM to launch 'Ayushman Bharat' scheme from J'khand today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will Sunday roll out the Centre's flagship Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) from here.

The ambitious scheme, renamed the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyan (PMJAY), aims to provide a coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually, benefiting more than 10.74 crore poor families for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation through a network of empanelled health care providers.

"The prime minister will launch the scheme on September 23, but it will become operational from September 25 on the birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay," Niti Aayog member V K Paul, the chief architect of the scheme, had said.

Billed as the world's largest government healthcare programme, it will be funded with 60 per cent contribution coming from the Centre and remaining from the states.

The scheme will target poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational category of urban workers' families, 8.03 crore in rural and 2.33 crore in urban areas, as per the latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data.

It will cover around 50 crore people and there is no cap on family size and age in the scheme ensuring that nobody is left out.

Over 8,735 hospitals, both public and private, have been empanelled for the scheme, and as many as 31 states and union territories have signed MoUs with the Centre and will implement the programme.

Telangana, Odisha, Delhi, Kerala and Punjab are not among the states which have opted for the scheme.

Union Health Minister J P Nadda, who recently visited the Jharkhand capital, had said that money would not go to any person. It would go from institution to institution with the Centres contribution being 60 per cent and the states 40 per cent.

The prime minister will also lay foundation stones for medical colleges in Chaibasa and Koderma.