Centre, Delhi sign MoU for Rs 2,000 crore health infrastructure mission
Distribution of PMJAY cards begins in Delhi; state govt aims to cover 2.35 lakh families in first phase
 "Centre, Delhi sign MoU for Rs 2,000 crore health infrastructure mission")
The Delhi government on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to implement the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM ABHIM) in the national capital.
“Approximately ₹2,406 crore will be allocated for improving health infrastructure in Delhi under PM ABHIM,” Delhi Chief Secretary Dharmendra said.
The allocation is set to be used to construct 1,139 urban Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (AAMs), 11 integrated public health laboratories and 9 critical care hospital blocks in the national capital.
The government also started card distribution under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) scheme, with 20 beneficiaries including ASHA workers being given the cards by Union Health Minister JP Nadda and Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.
An official said the Delhi government aims to cover around 250,000 families in the first phase of registrations that started on April 10.
Under PMJAY, beneficiaries in Delhi will now be eligible for an annual health assurance coverage of ₹5 lakh per family. The Delhi government will provide an additional ₹5 lakh cover to eligible families, taking the annual insurance to ₹10 lakh.
An official with the Delhi health agency told Business Standard that the scheme will include 1,961 treatment packages across 27 specialities in over 30,000 empanelled hospitals in India.
“In Delhi, 46 private hospitals, 38 Delhi government hospitals and 11 hospitals run by the Union government have been empanelled under PMJAY till now,” the official added.
Gupta had earlier stated that the Delhi government has set aside a ₹2,144 cr fund for implementation for PMJAY in its Budget.
The PMJAY, launched in 2018, aims to provide health cover of ₹5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to around 550 million individuals, corresponding to 123.4 million families.
Whether households are covered or not depends on the deprivation and occupational criteria of the Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011 for rural and urban areas, respectively.
With Delhi joining in, 35 states and Union territories will have joined the Centre’s health assurance scheme, with only West Bengal not on board.