India brought its ‘senior citizens’, aged 70 years and above, under the central-sponsored universal healthcare scheme, Ayushman Bharat. Around six crore new beneficiaries across 4.5 crore families will be added to the existing Ayushman Bharat scheme, with beneficiaries getting free health coverage of ₹5,00,000 per family. The outlay is pegged at ₹3,437 crore. 

The various State governments that are on board with the Ayushman Bharat program will also contribute a part of the amount. 

Additional top-up coverage for families which are already under the scheme but did not include coverage for senior citizens will now be allowed the additional insurance coverage of ₹5,00,000. 

“This will be a demand based scheme and on-ground roll out will start in the next few days,” Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Railways, IT and I&B said. 

Senior citizens with private insurance coverage will also be eligible for the new Ayushman Bharat scheme. 

The existing Ayushman Bharat scheme has witnessed continuous expansion of the beneficiary base. 

Beneficiary base

Initially, 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families comprising the bottom 40 per cent of India’s population were covered under the scheme. In January 2022, the revised beneficiary base under AB PM-JAY was 12 crore families, considering India’s decadal population growth of 11.7 per cent over the 2011 population. 

The scheme was further expanded to cover 37 lakh ASHAs/AWWs/AWHs working across the country and their families for free healthcare benefits.  

“Taking the mission ahead, AB PM-JAY would now provide free healthcare coverage of ₹5 lakh to all citizens of the age-group of 70 years and above across the country,” the Minister said. 

According to Vaishnaw, the Health Ministry will soon release details of the scheme, including beneficiary enrolment, fund disbursal, empanelled hospitals, and so on.  

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