Box 2 Progress under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) component of Ayushman Bharat in India [1, 32, 33]
Ayushman Bharat Program, from the time of announcement has two components. Other than Ayushman Bharat- Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWC), AB-PMJAY is the second component. It has built upon the erstwhile Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), started in year 2008 in India. Even since announcement of ABP, the scheme has witnessed a few evolutions in name before settling for AB-PMJAY. It was announced as AB-National Health Protection scheme or AB-NHPS in February 2018, renamed as National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) in early March 2018 and then Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Mission (PM-RSSM) in third week of March 2018. In mid August 2018, it was referred as Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Abhiyan (PMJAA) (15 August 2018) before finally being renamed as AB-PMJAY towards the end of Aug 2018. AB-PMJAY provides health cover of up to INR 500,000 (Exchange rate in April 2020: 1 USD= approx. 75 INR) per family per year on floater basis; covers 3-day pre-hospitalization and 15 d post hospitalization; expenses on medicines, follow up and diagnostics. One thousand three hundred ninety three procedures in 24 specialties were part of the scheme, as on October 2019. There is no cap on family size, age or gender, cashless and paperless treatment for beneficiaries at point of care. Benefits are portable across the country in the empaneled hospitals.
The scheme was announced in Union Budget of India on 1 February 2018; Cabinet approval was received on 21 March 2018; National Health Agency got incorporated on 11 May 2018; AB-PMJAY was formally launched on 23 September 2018, from Ranchi, Jharkhand. On completion of 100 d of launch on 2 January 2019; National Health Authority or NHA was formed.
At 1 y of completion of AB-PMJAY on 22 Sept 2019; a total of 32 states of 36 states/UT were implementing the scheme. One hundred and three million e-cards were issued. There were 18,236 hospitals empaneled [8,571 (47%) public and 9,665 (53%) private] and there were 4.65 million total hospital admissions with 2.18 million (47%) in govt. and 2.47 million (53%) in private facilities. The total treatment equal to Indian Rupee (INR) 7,490 Cr (US$ 1.07 billion) was provided, which included INR 2,846 Cr (38%) in Public and INR 4,644 Cr (62%) in private sector facilities.