Southern states dominate authorised hospital admissions under PMJAY
TN, Kerala among top five despite gradual fall in hospital admissions in the last three years
 "Southern states dominate authorised hospital admissions under PMJAY")
Southern states are leading the way in authorised hospital admissions under the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), with four states out of the top five from the region.
While Tamil Nadu tops the list with 9.05 million hospital admissions since the scheme's inception, it is followed by Karnataka (6.60 million), Rajasthan (5.74 million), Kerala (5.46 million) and Andhra Pradesh (4.96 million), according to data available on the PMJAY dashboard.
This southern dominance comes at a time when none of these states figure in the top five in creating Ayushman cards.
Karnataka (17.5 million cards) and Andhra Pradesh (15.6 million cards) are the highest card creating states in the south, placed eighth and tenth on the list.
Telangana, which joined the scheme only in 2021, has 8.29 million Ayushman cards, which is more than Kerala (7.70 million cards) and Tamil Nadu (7.54 million cards).
However, besides Tamil Nadu and Kerala, other southern states have witnessed a growth in hospital admissions under the scheme since the last three financial years, according to data presented by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in the parliament.
Hospital admissions under the scheme in Tamil Nadu hospitals have come down from 4.39 million in financial year 2022 (FY22) to 1.05 million in FY24.
While Tamil Nadu tops the list with 9.05 million hospital admissions since the scheme's inception, it is followed by Karnataka (6.60 million), Rajasthan (5.74 million), Kerala (5.46 million) and Andhra Pradesh (4.96 million), according to data available on the PMJAY dashboard.
This southern dominance comes at a time when none of these states figure in the top five in creating Ayushman cards.
Karnataka (17.5 million cards) and Andhra Pradesh (15.6 million cards) are the highest card creating states in the south, placed eighth and tenth on the list.
Telangana, which joined the scheme only in 2021, has 8.29 million Ayushman cards, which is more than Kerala (7.70 million cards) and Tamil Nadu (7.54 million cards).
However, besides Tamil Nadu and Kerala, other southern states have witnessed a growth in hospital admissions under the scheme since the last three financial years, according to data presented by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in the parliament.
Hospital admissions under the scheme in Tamil Nadu hospitals have come down from 4.39 million in financial year 2022 (FY22) to 1.05 million in FY24.
Similarly, the data, accessed by Business Standard, suggests that the number of PMJAY admissions in Kerala have dropped from 1.69 million in FY22 to 1.07 million in FY24.
Authorised hospital admissions have seen gradual increase in Andhra Pradesh (from 1.13 million in FY22 to 1.84 million in FY24), Karnataka (from 1.08 million in FY22 to 3.21 million in FY24) and Telangana (from 323,421 in FY22 to 618,497 in FY24).
High card creators see low admission numbers
Uttar Pradesh with 51 million Ayushman cards has recorded only 2.8 million admissions under the scheme, according to PMJAY data
Uttar Pradesh with 51 million Ayushman cards has recorded only 2.8 million admissions under the scheme, according to PMJAY data
Similarly, other high card creating states like Madhya Pradesh (40.2 million cards) and Bihar (35.6 million cards) have recorded only 3.35 million and 778,000 hospital admission respectively.
While Bihar had restarted the scheme under a new name only in March 2024 after three years, no information is available on reasons for lower hospital admission numbers in other states.
According to the National Health Authority (NHA) data, the scheme has, so far, covered over 356 million citizens, who have received Ayushman cards to avail free health insurance of Rs5 lakh for hospitalisation.
More than 68 million hospitalisations worth Rs90,204 crore have been covered under the scheme till now.
The PMJAY, launched in 2018, is the world’s largest publicly funded health assurance scheme, which aims to provide health cover of Rs5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to around 550 million (55 crore) 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 (SECC 2011) for rural and urban areas, respectively.
The scheme was later expanded to cover Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) and Anganwadi workers, and then all citizens aged 70 years and above.