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Recently, Odisha became the 34^th state to implement the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).

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Odisha joined the scheme after the National Health Authority (NHA) under the Union Health Ministry signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Odisha.

• The National Health Authority is the successor of the National Health Agency, which was functioning as a registered society since 23rd May 2018.

The AB PM-JAY will be implemented in convergence with the existing Gopabandhu Jan Arogya Yojana (GJAY) in Odisha. It will provide a cover of ₹5 lakh per family per annum with an additional ₹5 lakh for women members. 

• A total of approximately 1.03 crore families will come under the converged scheme with 67.8 lakh families supported by the Union Government.

This MoU is in line with the goal of ‘Viksit Bharat’ and ‘Utkarsh Odisha’.

The converged scheme will cumulatively benefit around 4.5 crore people of Odisha by enhancing access to cashless and quality treatment from around 900 empanelled hospitals to over 29,000 government and privately empanelled hospitals.

Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana 

• This scheme was launched by the Prime Minister of India in 2018 from Ranchi, Jharkhand.
• Recognized as the world’s largest government-funded healthcare programme, it is a flagship scheme of the Government that provides health cover of ₹5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. 
• The National Health Authority (NHA) is the apex body responsible for implementing the scheme.
• PMJAY provides cashless and paperless access to services for the beneficiary at the point of service.
• It covers up to 3 days of pre-hospitalization and 15 days of post-hospitalization expenses such as diagnostics and medicines. 
• The PMJAY beneficiaries are identified based on the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 database. 

Key Statistics of the Scheme

• The scheme is fully digitized and covers approximately 45% of India's population.
• Since the inception of the scheme, 8.39 crore hospital admissions have been recorded, with ₹1.16 lakh crore spent on providing healthcare to marginalized sections of society.
• As per the Lancet study AB PM-JAY has increased access to healthcare for cancer patients by 33%.
• Around 2,000 medical procedures across 27 specialties including major surgeries like bypass surgeries and knee replacements are covered under the scheme.
• As of January 2024, more than 34.7 crore Ayushman cards have been created under the Scheme. 
• In March 2024, 37 lakh families of ASHA, Anganwadi Workers, and Anganwadi Helpers were also included in the scheme.
• In October 2024, the government expanded AB PM-JAY to include all senior citizens aged 70 years and above, irrespective of their socio-economic status. This expansion is estimated to benefit 4.5 crore families, corresponding to 6 crore individuals.