Chief Secretary, BVR Subrahmanyam, today attended the live televised launch of ambitious Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyan Yojana (PMJAY) at SKICC Srinagar.The scheme was formally launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Ranchi in Jharkhand today.Principal Secretary Health & Medical Education, Atal Dulloo, Mission Director, National Health Mission, J&K, Bhupinder Kumar, Director General ISM, Dr Abdul Kabir and other senior government functionaries, doctors and medical students were also present at SKICC during the televised launch of PMJAY.Ayushman Bharat is billed as world's largest government-funded healthcare programme aimed at benefiting 50 crore citizens across the country.The government-sponsored health insurance scheme will provide free coverage of up to rupees 5 lakh a family a year in any government or even empanelled private hospitals all over India.The scheme will target poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational category of urban workers’ families, 8.03 crore in rural and 2.33 crore in urban areas, as per the latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data.
To ensure that nobody from the vulnerable group is left out of the benefit cover, there will be no cap on family size and age in ‘Ayushman Bharat’ scheme. The insurance scheme will cover pre and post-hospitalization expenses.The expenditure incurred in premium payment will be shared between central and state governments in a specified ratio: 60:40 for all states and UTs with their own legislature, 90:10 in Northeast states and the three Himalayan states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal and Uttarakhand and 100 per cent central funding for UTs without legislature. The states are also free to continue with their own health programmes.So far, 14 states have finalized their memoranda of understanding with the Centre. Of these, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Sikkim and Chandigarh are the states that will use a trust model for the mission. In a trust model, bills are reimbursed directly by the government. Gujarat and Tamil Nadu have opted for mixed mode implementation. In an insurance model, the government pays a fixed premium to an insurance company, which pays the hospitals.