26 Crore Ayushman Cards Created Across Country: Union Health Ministry

New Delhi: The Centre’s health insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri – Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) has crossed the milestone of generating 26 crore Ayushman cards across the country, the health ministry said in a statement. With four crore cards, Uttar Pradesh tops the list of states with the highest number. Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh stand at number two and three positions with 3.69 crore and 2.04 crore Ayushman cards, respectively. The health ministry further said in the statement 49 per cent Ayushman cards are held by female beneficiaries.

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The AB PM-JAY has successfully catered to 5.7 crore hospital admissions costing more than Rs 70,000 crore, the statement added.

The flagship scheme being implemented by the National Health Authority (NHA) provides a health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to 12 crore beneficiary families.

Ayushman card generation is the “most fundamental activity” under the AB PM-JAY and concerted efforts are being continuously made to ensure every beneficiary under the scheme has an Ayushman card, the ministry said. It is one of the key activities under the Ayushman Bhav campaign launched to ensure 100 per cent coverage of the central government’s health schemes. Since the launch of the campaign on September 13, more than 1.5 crore Ayushman card requests have been successfully received on NHA’s IT platform. In October, 86 lakh Ayushman cards were created till Thursday, the statement stated.

The NHA has launched the ‘Ayushman App’ to generate Ayushman card. The app has a unique feature of self-verification, which enables users to generate Ayushman card in four steps without visiting any centre, the statement said.

The app has been downloaded more than 26 lakh times since its launch.

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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – theLGBTQ population,indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the currentCOVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water,SanitationandHygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fightmalnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health,adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues likeair pollution,waste management,plastic ban,manual scavengingand sanitation workers andmenstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India wheretoilets are used andopen defecation free (ODF)status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched byPrime Minister Narendra Modiin 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.