In a significant achievement, the world's largest fully government-funded health insurance scheme Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) has given benefit to over 50 lakh patients in their treatment so far.
Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), which is the flagship health assurance scheme of the central government, has now given half a crore hospital treatments in just a year.
According to the government, so far free secondary and tertiary treatment worth nearly Rs. 7,901 crores have been availed and states such as Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh have emerged as the top-beneficiary states.
Lauding the progress of the scheme, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said: "The Ayushman Bharat family is growing by leaps and bounds. In just over one year, under PM-JAY more than 50 lakh treatments have been availed by beneficiaries across the country. But, this is just the beginning for this path-breaking scheme."
He said we are grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his visionary leadership.
"The successful implementation of this scheme will help us take forward Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay's vision of "Antyodaya" - the upliftment of the last man, such that this deprived man gets the benefits of development. The aim of our government is to make Bharat 'Rog mukt and Ayushmaan!'," Vardhan said.
National Health Authority (NHA) chief executive officer (CEO) Dr Indu Bhushan also termed the development as a significant milestone.
"The scheme will continue to focus on reducing catastrophic out-of-pocket health expenditure, improving access to quality health care and meeting the unmet need of the population for hospitalization care so that we move towards the vision of Universal Health Coverage," he said.
Bhushan also said that empowering the poorest people in the country with the assurance of scheme is a major area of focus.
There were nine hospital admissions every minute across the country in the first year, said the government data.
More than 60 per cent of the amount spent has been on tertiary care. Cardiology, Orthopaedics, Radiation Oncology, Cardio-thoracic and Vascular Surgery, and Urology have emerged as the top tertiary specialities.
The scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 23 last year.
( With inputs from ANI )